You gotta keep your pad clean. But when you spray that cleaner on your kitchen counter, you might be getting rid of the remnants of last night's party, but you may also be doing as much damage to your body as a Dirty Bomb.

Everyday household cleaners can contribute to allergies, asthma, headaches, dizziness, chest pains, eye and skin irritations, birth defects, fatigue, depression, and cancer. Here's a list of 17 common ingredients in cleaners you probably have in your house right now, and the effects they can have.

Forget rubber gloves, you should be wearing a hazmat suit.

Ammonia –
Causes irritation to eyes and nose, breathing difficulties, chest pains, pulmonary edema (lungs fill with fluid), cataracts and skin burns. High exposure can lead to lung damage, blindness, heart attack or death. Has been shown to produce skin cancer. Typically found in glass cleaners, all-purpose cleaners, and disinfectants.

2-butoxyethanol / Ethylene glycol butyl ether –
This chemical can be easily absorbed by the skin or inhaled, and can damage the liver, kidneys, reproductive organs and cause blood disorders. Commonly found in all-purpose cleaners, window cleaners.

Ethoxylated nonyl phenols (gender-benders) –
This chemical has been shown to induce female characteristics in male fish (if that doesn't make you go "holy crap", nothing will), and poses such a threat to the environment that it has been banned in the UK. It is still available for use in the US. ...There's more

She's coming over in a half hour and your place is a wreck from the poker game last night. You go to clean the stale beer coagulating with chip crumbs on the coffee table, and realize you're out of glass cleaner. Screwed? Not if you know what to grab from your kitchen.

Using only three main ingredients: water, baking soda and white vinegar, you can cook up some homemade cleaners that'll get your place back to date-shape before she shows up. And for a helluva lot less than the cleaners you buy in the store.

All Purpose Cleaning Solution:
1 cup Vinegar
1 cup Water
1 spray bottle

Pour vinegar and water into a spray bottle and shake. Use this for daily wipe-downs of the counter in your kitchen or bathroom, or for small spills on the stove-top. If you want to add some scent use one or two drops of lemon, orange or pine oil and shake the bottle before use. These oils are great for ...There's more

New research is showing, like a lot of new research lately, that what we thought was good for us may not be. And could possibly be doing more harm than good.

According to the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases (just a little light reading to have with your morning coffee), researchers from the University of Michigan went back and studied the results of over 27 studies conducted from 1980-2006 on the effectiveness of antibacterial soaps.

They found that soaps containing the commonly used bacteria-killing chemical triclosan, were "no more effective than plain soap at preventing infectious illness symptoms and reducing bacterial levels on the hands." So apparently "antibacterial soap" is just another marketing ploy that went and got itself mainstream. At our expense.

As an added bonus they found "several laboratory studies demonstrated evidence of triclosan-adapted cross-resistance to antibiotics among different species of bacteria." Which translated to normal-person speak means the little buggers are adapting rather than dying, and are becoming resistant to the stuff we developed to kill them.

"Antibacterial" my ass. I'm heading out to buy some old-school soap.

Guys spend billions a year on dry cleaning. Adding regularly to the cost of our clothes and helping George move on up to a deeeluxe apartment in the sky. George, I love ya, but I'm tired of my money paying for your deeeluxe rent.

If you're just looking to clean and freshen your suits, sweaters or dress pants - and there's no heavy stains or ground-in dirt on the collars or cuffs - you can achieve the same results as your dry cleaner, at home and for a helluva lot less.

A product like Dry Cleaner's Secret can help. They're simple enough that you don't have to be a laundry guru to use them. All you do is place up to four garments in your dryer with the dry cleaning sheet, set the timer for 20 minutes and let 'em roll on medium heat. Take them out fresh, wrinkle-free and ready to wear again.

How much can you save? Each single-use sheet costs about $1.67 and can clean up to four pieces of clothing. Meaning it costs you about 42 cents per cleaning. Big savings over the average $6.50 it costs to dry clean a suit. ...There's more