Hydrogen Peroxide and Green Living (Blulow)

As promised in my Basic Ingredients for Blulow Living blog entry, here are a few reasons why it’s good to keep a few bottles of hydrogen peroxide in your home.

1. Cleaning stainless steel sinks: It’s great for leaving a stainless steel sink glistening. It may work as well on porcelain sinks too, but mine is stainless steel so I can only tell you about my experience.When you are disinfecting your kitchen sponge at the end of the day, pour some hydrogen peroxide on the back of your scrubbing sponge. You know the kind with the coarse plastic on the back (not steel wool pads like SOS or Brillo). While scrubbing the sink, you’ll notice the peroxide will foam a little, but that’s good. It’s the disinfecting action. Once you’re through scrubbing, rinse it all off. Your sink will shine.
2. A laundry whitener. Use it instead of bleach to whiten your white clothes. Not being a chemist, I cannot explain the chemical reaction that occurs causing the peroxide to whiten the clothes, but it works.Hydrogen peroxide as a whitener seemed the like the next logical step. After all, I’ve gone as far as making homemade laundry detergent, why not go all the way and use an environmentally friendly bleaching agent.
3. Removes pesticides from fruits and vegetables. Put your veggies in a bowl of gold water and pour about a quarter cup in the bowl of hydrogen peroxide. Let it sit for about 10 or 15 minutes and then wash it off. I’ve also been told that it will be more effective if you follow the hydrogen peroxide washing with a similar procedure using apple cider vinegar. Using both products, one after the other, will purportedly remove 99% of the pesticides.I don’t have chemical proof that it works, but I do it anyway. It can’t hurt anymore than ingesting the pesticides. I do the same thing with meat too. I put the meat in cold water and add a little hydrogen peroxide then thoroughly wash it off.
4. Teeth whitener: Used in conjunction with baking soda, hydrogen peroxide can whiten your teeth and kill germs. Put a little baking soda in a small cup with a capful of hydrogen peroxide. All you need is just enough to make the baking soda pasty enough to stick to your toothbrush. Dip your toothbrush into the paste and brush.No, it does not taste minty sweet and delicious, but it works.While we’re on the subject of teeth, morning breath and germs, when you reach for your mouthwash, use one part mouthwash to one part hydrogen peroxide for extra germ killing power.
5. Cuts and Scrapes: Almost forgot to mention that it’s great for cleaning cuts and scrapes.

These are a few ways that I use hydrogen peroxide.