Cleaning & Jan-San Department

A mil is a thousandth of an inch of film thickness. Kitchen liners run around 0.7–1 mil, general commercial liners around 1.5, and contractor bags 3 mil and up. Thickness is what resists puncture and tearing, so it is the number that matters when the load has corners: sheetrock offcuts, tile, brush, anything with a broken edge. For soft rubbish, a thinner bag in the right size is cheaper and works fine. Gallon capacity tells you the volume, not the strength.

No — and two combinations are genuinely dangerous. Bleach mixed with any ammonia-containing cleaner produces chloramine gas; bleach mixed with an acid, including some descalers and toilet cleaners, releases chlorine gas. Both cause real harm in an ordinary bathroom-sized room. Beyond the hazard, mixing usually cancels the products out rather than combining them. Use one product, rinse, ventilate, and use the next if you need to.

Cleaning physically removes soil and a good share of what is living in it, usually with detergent and agitation. Sanitizing reduces the remaining microorganisms to a level judged safe. Disinfecting is the strongest step and is aimed at killing them on a hard surface. Disinfectants only work if the surface is clean first, and nearly all of them need a stated dwell time — the surface has to stay visibly wet for that long. Wiping a disinfectant straight off does very little.