Pour Hydrogen Peroxide Down Your Sink And Watch What Happens – Hydrogen Peroxide Uses We Wish We Knew Sooner
Many people know hydrogen peroxide as the stinging, bubbling liquid your parents forced on your cuts when you were younger. Hydrogen peroxide acts as a bleaching agent, antibacterial, and antiseptic. There's plenty you can do with that untouched bottle around your home.
Since hydrogen peroxide is relatively safe, you can use it to whiten your teeth, clean your ears, and care for your skin. You can clean your entire house with hydrogen peroxide alone—if you know how to use it correctly. Here are the best hydrogen peroxide hacks.
Worried About Germs This Flu Season? Disinfect Bathroom And Kitchen Surfaces
Hydrogen peroxide is an anti-viral and anti-bacterial. That's why many household cleaners include this ingredient. If you're running low on kitchen cleaners, use 3% hydrogen peroxide instead. Store it in a spray bottle and use as you would any other household cleaner.
Although hydrogen peroxide is a powerful disinfectant, it takes time to work. You might want to leave the solution on your countertops or walls for a minute before wiping. A mixture of vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and plain soap makes an efficient cleaning solution for windows and mirrors.
You Can Safely Remove Wax From Your Ears Using Peroxide
A 2015 study from Australian Family Physician supports ear irrigation as the most effective way to remove ear wax. Ear irrigation involves a liquid that softens the wax and dislodges it. Since hydrogen peroxide makes the wax bubble and weaken, it's a safe way to clean your ears.
Start by lying on your side. Place a few drops of hydrogen peroxide in your upward-facing ear. Wait five minutes, then sit up and use a tissue to absorb any excess liquid. Then do the same on your other ear. Remember to consult your doctor before trying these home remedies.
Hydrogen Peroxide Is A Natural Deodorant
When bacteria breaks down sweat, it creates body odor. Because our armpits sweat more than any other area, they're the main culprit of body odor. Some people use 3% hydrogen peroxide to kill these germs, and hence halt the B.O.
Hydrogen peroxide is not an antiperspirant, so it won't inhibit your sweating. But neither do deodorants. Swipe or spray some hydrogen peroxide wherever you're sweating for odor relief. And it's certainly cheaper than paying for a deodorant that could contain harmful substances like aluminum.
This Can Alleviate A Painful Canker Sore
Anyone who has had a canker sore knows that it hurts. While hydrogen peroxide can't make a canker sore disappear, it can speed up the healing. The peroxide kills growing bacteria in your mouth, which may ameliorate some pain.
Dilute 3% hydrogen peroxide with water--no more than half and half. Apply the mixture to your canker sore. Either dip a cotton ball in the solution and press it to your sore, or swish the liquid in your mouth. Either way, make sure not to swallow any of the peroxide. Oh, and it might sting a bit.
Time For Teeth Whitening
According to a 2004 study in the Journal of Dentistry, hydrogen peroxide effectively bleaches teeth. To whiten your teeth, create a solution of 1/2 water and 1/2 hydrogen peroxide. Swish it around in your mouth for at least 30 seconds, or as long as you can stand. Spit the solution out if it hurts your mouth, and don't swallow it.
The higher the concentration, the brighter the whitening. However, a 2006 study from the same journal reported that higher concentrations could harm the enamel. If you use a higher concentration (25% or 35%), shorten the amount of time that the peroxide is in your mouth.
Give Your Dishwasher More Oomph
Dishwashers make everything easier--when they work. If you don't clean your dishwasher, the extra residue will cake the walls and leave your dishes less than lustrous. Plus, the hydrogen peroxide will lend your dishwasher soap more cleaning power.
Before you run your next load, add 1/4 cup (or three ounces) of 3% hydrogen peroxide to your dishwasher. Close the door and run it. The hot water will swirl it around, and the peroxide will disinfect the surface. That's all you have to do!
It Can Save Your Dog's Life
Dog owners understand the risk of accidental poisoning. As soon as your dog eats a lot of grapes or chocolate, you're on the clock. You can safely induce vomiting by feeding your dog a small amount of hydrogen peroxide. The peroxide creates a mild reaction but not extreme enough to cause harm.
To induce vomiting, give your dog 3% hydrogen peroxide (any higher concentration is toxic). Feed your dog one teaspoon per five pounds of their body weight. The vomiting works ten to 15 minutes after eating, and it can last for up to 45 minutes. Afterward, follow up with your vet.
Beat That Bad Breath
Hydrogen peroxide not only whitens your teeth, but it also eliminates bad breath. Gargling hydrogen peroxide kills the bacteria in your throat, so it can also assuage sore throats and gum inflammation. Before you pour it straight into your mouth, dilute the peroxide in water.
Pour 3% hydrogen peroxide into water: one part peroxide per two parts water. This will lower the concentration to 1% hydrogen peroxide. Gargle and swish the solution around your mouth for 30 to 60 seconds and then spit it out. Do not swallow. Rinse your mouth afterward, and you're ready to go!
Clear Your Contact Lenses
If you don't clean your contact lenses, you run the risk of spreading an eye infection. Instead of buying a solution, you can clear your lenses with hydrogen peroxide. This technique may help people who are sensitive to the preservatives used in contact solutions. To prevent hydrogen peroxide from stinging your eyes, you'll need a neutralizer as well.
To clean your contact lenses, you can place them in 3% hydrogen peroxide for a little while. Afterward, leave them in a neutralizer for a couple of hours. Usually, the directions on the bottle will tell you exactly how long to leave them in.
Disinfect Your Sponges
When your sponge starts smelling, it's time to clean it. You don't have to throw your sponge away every time it smells germ-infested. Hydrogen peroxide will soak into the sponge and kill all bacteria inside the tiniest crevices.
To start, place your sponge in a container. Pour hydrogen peroxide until the sponge is mostly submerged, and watch for the white bubbles. That means the bacteria is dying. After a few minutes, flip the sponge over and leave it for a few more minutes. Then take out the sponge and rinse it. You're done!
Safely De-Germ Your Children's Toys
If you're worried about chemical cleaners, you'll want to keep hydrogen peroxide in mind. It's a great tool to use on kids' toys since it doesn't leave harmful residue. A mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water can easily disinfect plastic toys.
First, wipe off visible dirt. Remove any batteries if the toy has them. Then, create a solution that's half water and half 3% hydrogen peroxide. (If you use all peroxide, it may strip the paint off.) You can either place the toy in a bowl of the mixture, or you can soak a towel and rub the toy.
Help Your Plants Grow Big And Strong
Hydrogen peroxide works by releasing oxygen. Because plants use oxygen to absorb nutrients from the soil, they love this extra oxygen molecule. This promotes healthier, more vigorous plant growth for your garden.
To encourage garden growth, mix one teaspoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide per one cup of water. After you pour the mixture into a spray bottle, mist your plants. If you want to cover an entire garden, increase your dosage to 35% hydrogen peroxide. You can also use this to pre-treat seeds. Since peroxide kills fungi, it also wards off potential diseases such as root infections.
The Perfect Cooler And Lunchbox Solution
According to a study, lunch boxes and coolers have bacteria that could cause food poisoning. Protect your family from this bacteria by cleaning these cases regularly. What better way to clean them than with hydrogen peroxide?
To start, remove all the food debris with soap and water. Then, fill your cooler or lunchbox with hydrogen peroxide. If you need more liquid, combine the hydrogen peroxide with water, but know that it'll have less strength. Leave it for ten minutes, and then rinse your containers.
Get Your Cutting Board Food-Ready
If you think about it, cutting boards touch our food as often (if not more often) as our plates do. As your cutting board touches raw vegetables and meat, it'll accumulate bacteria that can cause foodborne illness. Just washing the cutting board isn't enough; you'll want to disinfect it too.
After you clear your cutting board of food and water, rinse it thoroughly. Fill a container--large, glass baking pans should work--with 3% hydrogen peroxide. Leave your cutting board in there for ten minutes. Once you remove it, rinse it thoroughly, and look forward to your next meal.
Get Your Shower Grout Shining
Cleaning bathrooms can be a dirty job, right? All of the moisture in the room and build-up from products in the shower and sinks can require a lot of elbow grease to clean. Luckily, hydrogen peroxide is also helpful with cleaning the shower grout.
Combine hydrogen peroxide with a little water and some lemon. Spray on the grout and give it some time to sit and work its magic. After, scrub into the grout. It will still take some work, but will make the job much easier!
Pour Some Into Your Bath For A Detox
You’ve probably never heard of this hydrogen peroxide hack before! Surprisingly, the product can help kill germs and bacteria on your body, which will help prevent and fight off illness. (Try it this winter!)
Once you get your warm bath running, add some hydrogen peroxide and soak for 30 minutes. Afterward, you’ll want to shower to rinse it off your skin. This is a cheap and easy hack for helping prevent illness if you’ve been in a germy environment like a kids’ arcade or ball pit.
A Few Drops Can Help Prevent Ear Infections
Some kids and adults are more prone to ear infections than the average person. According to MedlinePlus, ear infections are the most common reason that parents bring their kids to the doctor, and three out of four children will have at least one ear infection by the time they reach three years old.
Reduce the risk of an ear infection by adding a couple of drops of hydrogen peroxide to a q-tip, and cleaning out the ears. There are more harmful bacteria in our ears than we think, and this little step goes a long way.
Get Rid Of Dead Skin Cells On Towels
Bathroom towels often become one of the dirtiest things that we have to clean. Sometimes, good ole detergent and hot water just don’t do the trick-- towels can collect loads of dead skin cells!
Luckily, you can get rid of dead skin cells on your bathroom towels with yep -- you guessed it -- hydrogen peroxide. Not every time, but every so often, add ½ cup of hydrogen peroxide to your wash load of towels. Add another ½ of vinegar, too! It will get your towels next-level clean.
Hydrogen Peroxide Gets Rid Of Blood Stains
“He’s bleeding! Grab a towel!” is not something that you ever want to hear in your household, but these things happen. And you know you’ll grab whatever’s within reach to stop the bleeding when you have to. Luckily, there’s a hack for that.
If you have a blood-stained towel, add some hydrogen peroxide to the affected area, and let it sit. Then, rinse under warm water with soap. Repeat if it doesn’t come out the first time, but it should make a big difference!
Get Rid Of Foot Odor In Shoes
No one wants to buy a different product for every purpose, which makes hydrogen peroxide all the more beneficial. Sure, you could find a product at the store specifically for getting rid of foot odor in shoes, but why would you when you have a bottle of hydrogen peroxide at home?
Mix it with baking soda to create a paste. Then, put it in your shoes and set them out to dry. Once dried, removed the residue with a cloth. It’ll help a lot!
Clean Your Toilet Bowl
Once again, hydrogen peroxide is the magic cleaning ingredient that you need in the bathroom! While you’re waiting for it to set on the grout in the shower, spray some hydrogen peroxide into your toilet bowl to get a good clean.
Mix it with ½ cup of baking soda and ¼ cup of castile soap. Throw in some warm water, too. This hack is great for saving money, or if you run out of toilet bowl cleaner and have some last-minute guests arriving.
Clean a Wound
Hydrogen peroxide also acts as a quick agent for cleaning a cut or wound. This is most likely one of the most common uses for the product, but if you don’t already know about it, it’s worth mentioning!
This hack is another that saves money, if you were to go to the store and select various different products for antibacterial and disinfectant purposes. Apply the hydrogen peroxide to minor wounds to clean away dead tissue, stop minor bleeding, and clean the area to prevent infection.
Brighten Your Curtains And Tablecloths
Have your curtains yellowed over time? It happens. Check the bottom of your curtains for discoloration; if it's messy, grab your bottle of hydrogen peroxide. Soak the yellowed part of your curtains in 3% hydrogen peroxide for five to ten minutes, and then throw them in the wash.
You can use the same method to remove stains from tablecloths. Soak the stained spots in hydrogen peroxide for a while. If food has caked onto the cloth, use a damp rag or sponge to scrub it off after the soak. Then run it through the wash.
Apply Hydrogen Peroxide To Bug Bites
Insect bites can quickly become itchy and irritate your skin. Making matters worse, if you scratch at the bites you can possibly cause a more severe infection. Applying hydrogen peroxide to your bug bites can help accelerate the healing process while reducing itchiness at the same time.
People who swear by this method say to reduce swelling and itchiness by simply swabbing your bug bites with a cotton ball soaked in hydrogen peroxide. There is one caveat to this method; you need to hit the bites as quickly as possible in order for the hydrogen peroxide to be fully effective.
Prevent And Get Rid Of Swimmer's Ear
The Cleveland Clinic says using a 3-percent hydrogen peroxide solution can help prevent swimmer's ear. The infection, called otitis externa, occurs when water lingers in the ear canal. We've already talked about how hydrogen peroxide can clean out ear wax but the product is also a preventative step a swimmer can take.
Use half an ear dropper full of the solution and let it bubble and fizz while your head is on its side. After a few minutes, perform the same process on the other ear. The Cleveland Clinic says to avoid drying the ear with a cotton swab or piece of cloth as it can cause tears to the delicate ear canal; instead, dry the area with a hairdryer to remove unwanted moisture.
Rid Yourself Of Athlete's Foot With Hydrogen Peroxide
Dr. Elizabeth Auger, a foot and ankle specialist, recommends using hydrogen peroxide to rid yourself of athlete's foot. Known as tinea pedis, athlete's foot is caused by a fungal infection between and around the toes.
You'll need to mix a pint of hydrogen peroxide with one gallon of warm water. To help fix the issue, dunk your feet in the solution. Allow your feet to soak for 30 minutes. Just keep in mind, cracks and cuts on your feet may sting when you first submerge them in the hydrogen peroxide mixture.
Revive Your Reusable Shopping Bags
Reusable shopping bags are a great way to go green. You get to help the environment and let's be honest, these bags tend not to break open like paper or plastic bags, ensuring your groceries and other items remain in good shape.
While reusable shopping bags are the way to go, they can often become smelly over time and they don't do great in the washer and dryer. If you want to revive your reusable shopping bags just spray them down with a quick spritz of hydrogen peroxide. A lot of people swear by this hydrogen peroxide hack.
Ditch Chlorine In Your Pool For Hydrogen Peroxide
This tip comes courtesy of the team at SF Gate who offer a less eye-irritating solution to pool cleaning. That's right, you can replace chlorine, which has been shown to cause lung and other issues, with hydrogen peroxide.
You can "shock" your pool, according to SFGate, by adding a "35 percent concentrated food-grade hydrogen peroxide at a ratio of one cup to 250 gallons of water in your pool." Immediately after you pour in the solution, start your pool's pump just long enough to circulate the mixture. Next, turn off the pump and let the solution sit for a full 24 hours before swimming.
Sinus Infection? Try Hydrogen Peroxide
If you suffer from regular but minor sinus infections, a simple hydrogen peroxide treatment could help. Simply mix one tablespoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide with one cup of non-chlorinated water. The solution you've created can be used as a nasal spray when treating septic sinuses.
Various studies have shown this method to work; however, for more serious sinus attacks you should schedule a doctor's visit as they will likely refer you to an otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat) specialist.
Preserve A Salad For A Little Longer
You can use food-grade hydrogen peroxide to keep your salad greens fresh for longer than usual. If you're sick and tired of lettuce, kale, spinach, and other greens shriveling up overnight, try this hack. Combine half a cup of water with one tablespoon of 3% food-grade hydrogen peroxide and spray the solution on your salad greens before adding any type of dressing.
Store your greens in the fridge and make sure they are covered for the best results. The product does a great job of killing bacteria and micro-organisms. Don't overdo it with the hydrogen peroxide and, again, make sure it's food grade.
