DIY "Bleach pen"

As you may have gleaned from my previous post, housework is not on my list of "things I love doing".

I have spent many hours searching Pinterest for ways to minimise the torture while maximising the results.  One of the magic little tools I found was a bleach pen.  What a fantastic invention!  Like a koki pen but with bleach – it gets into the hard-to-reach areas like the grout between tiles or the bit where your counter joins the wall, to name but a few.

Naturally, we do not have access to bleach pens here in Africa, (well, I certainly wasn’t able to locate them) and importing bleach, albeit in a handy pen-shaped container, seemed a bit daft.

So I made my own!  (well.....almost)  And you can too!

What you will need:

A bottle of bleach with a nozzle dispenser – I used the Pick ‘n Pay brand Thick Bleach

An elastic band

A sponge (an old washing-up sponge will do)

  

What to do:

1.    Cut a piece of sponge – about 10cm x 3 cm

2.    Place the piece of sponge around the nozzle end of the bottle of bleach.

3.    Hold the sponge firmly in place while you wrap the elastic band tightly around both the sponge and the nozzle.

It should look something like this.

To use:

Hold the bleach bottle upside down and apply to those hard to reach areas.  Leave for about 20 minutes or so and then wipe clean with a damp cloth.

The sponge acts as a kind of "felt tip" nib - enabling you to get the bleach into the grooves without splashing bleach everywhere and without the need for an old toothbrush.  Just keep an eye on the sponge as the rubbing motion can cause a hole - if it does, just replace the piece of sponge with a fresh one.

Here is a before and after photo of the tiles in my bathroom.  No scrubbing was required!

 

A word of caution : the usual health and safety rules apply when working with bleach. 

Make sure you work in a well-ventilated area as bleach can be a bit stinky.

When using bleach, wear old clothes.

Do not drink the bleach; do not let your children drink the bleach.

Do not dispose of bleach down the drains if you have a septic tank -its bad.

Happy cleaning.....