15 Household Uses for Mouthwash (Outside of Your Mouth)
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Before Listerine killed germs in your mouth, it killed bacteria on bathroom floors. Yes, back in the late 1800s, Listerine, which was originally developed as a hospital-grade antiseptic and later used as “a pharmaceutical specialty for dentists,” was commonly sold to consumers as an all-purpose cleaner, used to sanitize floors, clean feet, and douse smelly armpits.
The product didn’t become a household name until the 1920s, when the Lambert Pharmacal Company invented the bad breath “disease” known as halitosis and marketed Listerine as the cure. It was a profitable move for Lambert according to the book