Cleaning With Hydrogen Peroxide

The Green Wife posted this on her blog not long ago and I found it really helpful so wanted to pass it, the more options the better in my mind.  My mother absolutely loves Hydrogen Peroxide and uses it for everything - and it's so cheap!  Here goes from the mouth of The Green Wife:

Hydrogen peroxide has overtaken vinegar as my go-to cleaning agent around my home.  Don’t get me wrong, I still love and use my spray bottle of vinegar frequently, but peroxide makes me feel like my house is so very germ-free!  It’s such a wonderful cleanser, bleaching agent and antiseptic that I find myself reaching for it all kinds of reasons. 

Everyone knows that peroxide is a naturally occurring substance, but do you know where it actually comes from?  I wasn’t sure, so I consulted Wikipedi and this is what I found:

“Hydrogen peroxide is naturally produced in organisms as a byproduct of oxygen metabolism. Nearly all living things possess enzymes known as peroxidases, which harmlessly and catalytically decompose low concentrations of hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen.”

Very interesting.

The peroxide I keep around is simply the 3% that you’ll find in those 99 cent brown bottles in your pharmacy.  Cheap, readily available, natural and antiseptic….are you sold yet?

So, now that we have that in our brains, let’s talk about some of my favorite uses for this liquid gold…

Keep a 50/50 mix of peroxide and water in a spray bottle in your bathroom and spray down your shower walls, knobs and faucets to keep them sparkling and germ-free.

Make a paste of peroxide and baking soda as a whitening scrub for porcelain bathtubs.  Your tub has never been so white and germ-free!

Keep another 50/50 mix in your kitchen for wiping down counters, tables  and sinks.

After rinsing your wooden cutting boards, pour straight peroxide onto them to kill bacteria left behind from your food.

Use it to rinse produce to remove harsh chemicals and residual dirt.

Rinse your mouth with a capful of straight peroxide by swishing for several minutes 2-3 times a week. .  This will not only whiten teeth, but fight nasty bad-breath causing germs.

Peroxide breaks down proteins, so it’s wonderful for getting blood stains out of clothes.  Just be careful because it is also capable of removing color from fabric.

Clean your laminate or linoleum floors with a 50/50 peroxide/water mixture for floors so clean you could eat off of them!

Please….wear gloves when using hydrogen peroxide!

Source: http://www.thegreenwife.com/2009/12/14/hydrogen-peroxide/