Do you struggle and work too hard to get things clean around your home? A plethora of cleaning products assaults you at the store and in TV commercials. I’ve tried many of them, but 30 years ago I was lucky enough to discover the best all-purpose cleaner.

I happened to ask this question while meeting with a chemist: “Does it clean anything else?” The “it” I was asking about was oxygen bleach.

My interest in oxygen bleach was piqued two weeks earlier when I was interviewing the president of a small deck sealer company and asked him: “Do you recommend cleaning the treated wood with chlorine bleach before using your sealer?”

At the time, chlorine bleach was promoted by most as the way to clean exterior treated lumber.

“Oh, no, chlorine bleach is the worst thing to use!” he said. “You should always use oxygen bleach.”

I had never heard of oxygen bleach. He told me it would be best to talk directly with the chemist who worked for the biggest supplier of certified organic oxygen bleach.

Over dinner, the chemist gave a master class on the best way to clean treated lumber. I discovered that just about anything inside and outside your home can be restored to like-new condition using magic oxygen bleach.

Oxygen bleach is a powder you mix with water. The water initiates a chemical reaction that lasts about six hours. Countless oxygen ions are released into the water. These ions attack stain and odor molecules. The cleaning happens before your eyes in many cases.

The chemist sent me a 100-pound bag of this amazing powder a week after our dinner meeting. He sent a pamphlet describing how to use it and asked me to share the powder with my friends and neighbors.

“If you can clean the item using water, then you can almost always clean it safely with oxygen bleach,” he said.

Just about everything inside and outside your home can be cleaned using water.

Within a month, my friends were begging me for more. They were having success cleaning things that they thought they’d have to throw away. Set stains in clothing and carpets disappeared with soaking in almost all cases.

The true magic of oxygen bleach is that it can do most of the work on its own. Other cleaners often have you rubbing and scrubbing. The oxygen ions do this work for you on a microscopic level. All you have to do is get the surface wet with the solution and let the oxygen get to work.

In almost all cases, the longer you wait, the less you have to scrub. I recently used my oxygen bleach solution to get rid of deep grime and dirt on the painted metal surface of the door between my house and garage.

I mixed up my solution, applied it to the dirt and grime using a paper towel. Vertical surfaces are always more challenging because the solution wants to run down to the floor. I applied the saturated paper towel to the stain like you’d apply wallpaper to a wall. I waited one minute, then lightly scrubbed with a sponge. The door looked like new.

Oxygen bleach is an excellent degreaser. I use it in a spray bottle to clean my stove vent hood. I spritz the greasy surfaces and let the solution work for about three minutes. I then just use a soapy sponge, and the grease comes off with one wipe. It’s amazing.

My wife uses the same oxygen bleach when doing the laundry. It keeps whites sparkling white. It’s color- and fabric-safe. Colors retain their brightness. You get the best results by using the soak cycle in your washing machine. Allow things to soak for an hour or so, then proceed with the washing cycle.

Oxygen bleach can discolor natural wool and silk, aluminum and silver. Those two metals turn black when oxygen in the air reacts with them. It’s no wonder a liquid oxygen bleach solution will do the same.