Never Mix These Everyday Products Together

Whether you clean your home with chemical solutions or all-natural ones, like vinegar and lemon juice, there are certain products you should never ever ever mix together.

Plus, you should be wary when you mix ordinary things, like ibuprofen, with alcohol. Here’s the lowdown on five things you shouldn’t mess with.

1. Don’t Mix Vinegar And Bleach

Some people have a misconception that mixing vinegar and bleach is okay—after all, they’re both disinfectants to varying degrees. But, don’t do it! When they combine, they create a toxic chlorine gas.

If your eyes start to itch or you start coughing hard, you know why! So stick to using them separately.

2. Avoid The The Sun If You Use Certain Acne Medications

We’ve talked about the sun before—how a certain amount of vitamin D is good for us, to help against depression and headaches, for instance (but don’t forget the sunscreen).

But, at certain times, it’s not ideal to be in the sun… like if you have Rosacea or use certain acne medications that aren’t fans of the sun. Some of the latter can even cause some people to get a sunburn more easily, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH).

It’s best to read warning labels on all your medications, acne ones or not, and talk to your doctor or pharmacist, too, for clarification. You don’t want to make a bad condition even worse.

3. Don’t Mix Milk With Red Bull

I guess there’s a reason people mix Red Bull with vodka or drink it straight—it has ill effects, literally… at least if you watch the YouTube videos showing what happens when milk combines with Red Bull.

This video has over 12,675,000 views! The Happiest Mom on the Blog shows it best with a step-by-step description on how the drinks react with one another – i.e., how the acid in the Red Bull reacts with the proteins in the milk.

Though the pictures and videos online would indicate that people get sick if they drink the two substances together, I found additional research about people getting stomach pains from Red Bull sans any dairy. Once you watch videos of Red Bull and milk together, though, you probably won’t want to experiment and drink it.

4. Don’t Mix Bleach And Ammonia (Or Anything, Really)

“Don’t mix bleach with ammonia, acids, or other cleaners,” the Washington State Department of Health states on their website. “Mixing bleach with common cleaning products can cause serious injuries.”

They also advise that people always read cleaning product labels. Even if you don’t mix straight bleach, per se, other cleaning products could contain bleach, and when you mix them with other cleaners, it could be dangerous.

5. Don’t Mix And Match Two Different Battery Brands

When your remote is running low on juice and you don’t have a spare pair, try to avoid mixing two different batteries to get the necessary power. Why? It could damage the device.

Because they’re made by different brands (i.e. Duracell and Energizer), the voltages and chemicals in them may vary. This can ultimately can make the battery life be slightly different. When one dies, the other may still release its charge and cause it to leak.

6. Don’t Mix Alcohol With Medications

Some medications may state that alcohol will induce exhaustion, while others flat-out state not to combine alcohol with them, yet I’ve seen people pop some ibuprofen or Tylenol a few minutes after sipping a drink.

But it’s bad news any way you look at it. For instance, mixing Tylenol, aka acetaminophen, and alcohol can be so bad, it can lead to kidney and liver disease.

Taking ibuprofen and other NSAIDs (i.e., aspirin) with alcohol can also cause liver damage and disease.

7. Don’t Mix Rubbing Alcohol & Bleach

When you mix these two products together, a reaction occurs and creates Chloroform. A dangerous combination, it can impair liver function, cause cardiac arrhythmia, and induce nausea and dysfunction of hte central nervous system.

8. Don’t Mix Baking Soda & Vinegar

Baking soda and vinegar are two of my top cleaning products. So mixing them together should yield an amazing cleaning solution, right? Wrong. When combined, their powers create a solution that’s pretty much just water. Bummer.