How To Use Hydrogen Peroxide To Sanitize

Amazingly, after all these years and the development of countless store-bought products, hydrogen peroxide still reigns supreme when it comes to cleaning. It’s unbelievably effective! Perhaps more importantly it gets huge points for being natural and environmentally friendly. It’s non-toxic as well and ridiculously cheap to buy. Win, win, win!

Here are three great ways to use it to sanitize around the house: 

Boost the power of your dishwasher

How many times have you been ready to put away the dishes, only to find that they aren’t quite clean enough? Sigh! Start the cycle over and wait again. Or, find success the first time by including some H2O2! Simply add 2 oz of hydrogen peroxide to your usual dishwasher detergent. It will significantly increase the sanitization process. Not to mention saving you a few buck by not having buy as much product, nor run the dish cycle twice because the first attempt wasn’t effective enough. (Make sure to check that this doesn’t void your dishwasher’s warranty)

Sponges

If sponges have been overused and are questionable in terms of contamination, or are ragged, it is best to throw them away. But if you have a perfectly good sponge that can continue to be used if only you were certain it was germ free, don’t get rid of it. Instead, soak it in a shallow dish in a 50/50 mixture of warm water and H2O2. Then, be sure to rinse sponge quite thoroughly because it will obviously absorb a lot of the mixture. Air-dry, and your sponge is ready for duty!

Clean up kids’ toys and lunch boxes

As it turns out one of the hallmarks of hydrogen peroxide is that it is not a lung irritant. Nor is it toxic. So, it’s harmless when used to clean up all of the surfaces that kids touch. They tend to be the culprits when germs spread around the house. Combat the germs and bacteria by topping a bottle of H2O2 with a spray nozzle and spray away! Let dry before returning toys to their owner.

Interesting trivia: Did you know that a mother’s first milk is full of H2O2 that is passed along to her baby when breastfeeding to help boost the immune system? Yep, it is!

What’s your favorite trick around the house using hydrogen peroxide?