10 Cool Ways to Use Hydrogen Peroxide

10 Cool Ways to Use Hydrogen Peroxide 

In many homes I can’t say all or most but in many homes there is probably at least one bottle of hydrogen peroxide, it’s inexpensive you get it in the first aid aisle and it always comes in a brown bottle and there’s a reason behind that which I will get into in a minute but hydrogen peroxide is a really powerful cleaner even though you probably don’t think of it that way you probably think it’s more of a first aid product so in this article we are going to go through a multitude of ways that you can employ this humble liquid in your regular cleaning routine.

If you like a cleaning hack that actually works two quick things to know about using hydrogen peroxide first it always comes in a brown bottle because the second this liquid becomes exposed to sunlight it becomes unstable it separates it doesn’t do what it’s intended to do so whenever you’re making anything with hydrogen peroxide in it for the intention of cleaning make it on demand and dump it when you’re done so only whip up as much as you need next up you should also be mindful of the surfaces that you’re using this on and test it in a hidden area first because hydrogen peroxide can have the same properties that oxygen bleach or even chlorine bleach has in terms of being able to alter color which is why it is a popular stain remover so test in a hidden area before you use it.

Many years ago you might have seen a popular recipe going around pinterest called the dawn miracle cleaner it was essentially two parts hydrogen peroxide one part dawn dish soap now it can be any dish soap quite frankly although don does work really well so do other dish soaps the most important thing here is that you treat the stain the way you would treat any stain so first you remove all the sting material first by scraping and blotting you always want to treat a dry stain then you can apply this stain remover product using a cleaning toothbrush gently brush it in you don’t want to overuse product because you’re going to have to do more cleaning up afterward anyway and then just have a clean cloth with water so that you can quickly blot and rinse that stain area this is one of those areas that you would want to test in an inconspicuous area first before you take it and remove a stain, stay on a piece of clothing on a sofa or on a carpet.

Glass cutting boards are pretty impervious to odors but plastic and wood you’ve been there you know they get smelly and if you notice that your cutting board is smelly it’s telling you that there is some bacteria on that surface that needs to be dealt with so a really easy way to deal with it is to use straight hydrogen peroxide spray it on the surface let it sit for five to ten minutes then give your cutting board a good cleaning with soap and water rinse it well and allow it to dry the hydrogen peroxide used straight will definitely take care of that odor causing bacteria and some people what they will do so that they can just quickly access their bottle of hydrogen peroxide is they will remove the screw cap all together and put on a spray bottle nozzle and leave that with their cleaning arsenal so that way you still get the benefit of the hydrogen peroxide in a brown bottle but you have it in a much easier to use application.

Garbage cans recycling bins and compost bins can get pretty smelly whether they’re the ones that you keep inside your home or in your garage or at the side of your house so a great way to deal with those bad odors which are caused by bacteria by the way is to first and foremost make sure they’re clean so if that means just giving them a wipe down fine do it but really what we’re talking about here is using straight hydrogen peroxide spraying the interior of those bins and allowing that to sit for about minutes if it hasn’t dried on its own you can give it a wipe down and when you do this it will get rid of that odor causing bacteria and help restore your otherwise smelly bins to a nice neutral state.

If you get a blood stain on your clothing or bedding period cut otherwise having a bottle of hydrogen peroxide in your bathroom to deal with that stain is such a quick and easy fix and it really works because once a blood stain sets in it is so hard to get out so here’s what to do as soon as you notice that blood stain remove the garment pour a little bit of hydrogen peroxide onto the area and you should notice almost immediately that that blood stain just dissipates you might even notice some bubbling so I let that sit for a minute and then I rinse it off with cool water and I will repeat until it’s pretty much gone then I will launder the item and it washes out perfectly clean the most important thing with blood stains is that you catch it quickly but hydrogen peroxide it’ll solve that problem for you.

You might have heard me talk about something called toilet plume before just sit on that one for a minute if you don’t know what toilet plume is it’s the spray that comes out of your toilet every time you flush it and yes if your oral healthcare implements or otherwise are six feet or less away from the toilet you can expect with reasonable certainty that some of that toilet plume is going to land say on your toothbrush or your face care brush whatever you got in your bathroom anyway all that to say you can make a simple solution of three parts water to one part hydrogen peroxide and use that as a soak for any of your oral health care implements or otherwise so I like to do this I have invisalign so I will throw them in there every now and then I will do the same thing for my toothbrush head because I have an electric toothbrush so you can kind of toss in any of your stuff that you want to make sure is clean and bacteria free so you can toss it in there let it soak for even up to minutes and then just give it a good rinse in a dry and a really good habit to avoid toilet plume just as an aside close that lid before you flush.

There are many types of kids toys and many different ways to clean them but let’s say you just have a pile of those plastic toys no batteries no internal parts there’s a really easy way to clean and disinfect them take a bowl fill it with a liter or a quart of water add one cup of hydrogen peroxide so that’s a four to one mix and you can put your toys in there for about minutes and just let it sit that is going to make them clean get rid of any of those bacteria viruses or germs that you don’t want on your toys you rinse them you allow them to dry and you put them back into the mix.

For those of us who wear makeup you do know that you have to clean your beauty tools on a somewhat regular basis if you’re someone that uses sponges to apply your makeup those can be really hard to clean so what I would recommend for that is to first and foremost clean with soapy water and then you can do a soak for about minutes in a three to one solution three parts water one part hydrogen peroxide let it soak for minutes and that is going to help kill any acne causing bacteria that you would want to get rid of now for brushes you can clean those in soapy water as well and then you can spray them with a little bit of hydrogen peroxide leave it for a minute or two rinse it and dry.

If you’re concerned about the cleanliness of your produce when you come home from the grocery store there’s a simple produce wash you can put together simply fill a large bowl with a liter of water that would be a quart of water for those of you on that system and one cup of hydrogen peroxide then you can throw all of your produce in there and just let it soak for about five minutes that is going to be an adequate amount of time for the hydrogen peroxide to deal with a lot of the germs and viruses and bacteria that might be existing on the surface of your produce then really important give it a good thorough rinse and allow everything to dry before putting it in the fridge or storing on the counter.

We’ve talked about cleaning your produce we’re all kind of acutely aware of how dirty a grocery store can be but do we ever really think about cleaning our reusable bags probably not I’m answering my own questions here so if you are someone who kind of thinks about those reusable bags and where they’ve sat and perhaps how dirty they might be an easy way to clean them using hydrogen peroxide is to throw them into the washing machine with regular detergent and add a cup of hydrogen peroxide to the bleach compartment because hydrogen peroxide is known to be an effective disinfectant according to the CDC that can kill viruses bacteria and other types of germs so if you throw some of that in you can reasonably expect that your bags will come out not only cleaner but free of any of that nasty stuff.

Hydrogen peroxide is famous for its ability to whiten which is why we love using it to clean grout so a simple recipe for grout cleaning would be two parts baking soda to one part hydrogen peroxide you can mix that up in a bowl remember you only want to make up as much as you need to use at that time you’re going to apply it to your dirty grout with a cleaning toothbrush let it sit for a few minutes get that cleaning toothbrush back in action and start scrubbing the grout clean then rinse it with a clean cloth a few times baking soda tends to leave a little bit of grittiness behind so you really have to focus on that but your grout is gonna look great.

Hydrogen peroxide is also a great toilet bowl stain remover that’s exciting news so take a cup of hydrogen peroxide toss it into your toilet bowl and then scrub with your toilet bowl brush as usual you should notice that stains start to dissipate you can leave it for a minute or two just to let it do its work kind of spread it around the most important thing here is not to mix hydrogen peroxide with any other product so you want to do this as a standalone cleaning task.