Making Homemade Non-Chlorine Bleach
Mildew is my nemesis, but I much prefer it to the fumes of chlorinated bleach. Even though chlorine is very hard on the environment and our health, it’s found in a wide variety of household cleaners—all of which I’ve now replaced with homemade versions. The one hurdle we hadn’t quite overcome was bleach. So the last time we desperately needed to clean out the shower I asked my husband to purchase chlorine-free bleach to save the environment and my nose.
When we read the label on the container we were a bit shocked. The ingredients were simply hydrogen peroxide and water. Why then did we pay too much when we could have made it ourselves?
If you’d like to skip our expensive mistake, just follow the simple directions below.
- For the wash: Add a quarter cup of hydrogen peroxide to each washload or a bit more for very full or dirty loads.
- For stains: douse them with peroxide and then spot wash with detergent. It’s best not to let the peroxide sit on the fabric for a long period of time.
- For household use: Just add 1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide to one gallon of water and use on kitchen sink, tile, bathroom, shower, toilet and bathtub.
This mixture isn’t officially considered a disinfectant, but it will clean wonderfully. Enjoy!
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April 22nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
wow–thanks so much for this recipe! I don’t want to use bleach, but we didn’t know any other alternatives–now we do!
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:59 pm
That is cool! I will have to try that. I am curious why it wouldn’t work well on blood as I believe Hydrogen Peroxide does.
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:34 am
I also use non-chlorine bleach. I will try this recipe…but when I bought mine, I got it at the local SuperStore (Canada) and their Green brand of bleach only cost me $1.99 for a 3L jug (a gallon). I’m not sure if the hydrogen peroxide needed to make that much would cost less.
I’ll refill my jug with the homemade stuff next time to save waste and (hopefully) money!
April 23rd, 2009 at 6:32 am
I pour undeluted Hydrogen Peroxide on blood stains, wait for it to bubble, and then rinse the stain or soak it in cold water. Works great at getting out blood stains.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Great tip!
April 24th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Wow, this is great to know. I’ve got some annoying mildew on our grout so I hope this works on it.
April 29th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Okay, I’ve been thinking about this and I’m not sure it’s cheaper to do it this way. The chlorine free bleach I buy is only 1.75 for a half gallon. do we know how diluted it is? It doesn’t say on the label and I’m too lazy to look up the msds. the kind you h2o2 you buy for first aid is only 3% I think. You can’t buy it undiluted, it would be very caustic. That is what I remember from hs chemistry.
Here’s my beef, when I’ve used it, it doesn’t help with smells at all. I fixed this by adding baking soda to my detergent but I kind of miss the power of the chlorine bleach. Sigh. I’m not going to pretend that I don’t long for chlorine in my laundry…
April 29th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
well I did a quick search and 7th generation was kind enough to post all their msds on their website. Their bleach contains 3-5% h2o2 which means it is as strong or stronger as the first aid kind. There is no need to dilute and it is actually cheaper.
April 30th, 2009 at 7:43 am
I don’t understand the need to dilute it. At 3%, it’s already quite dilute.
April 30th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Thanks Eileen for your sleuthing! You’ve helped us learn that you DON’T need to add water to the hydrogen peroxide! Just as Eileen said, the bottled hydrogen peroxide you buy for medical use is diluted to 3%, which is exactly the same dilution ratio is for non-chlorine bleach.
June 28th, 2009 at 9:11 am
I’ve tried this recipe, and I didn’t notice any difference in the rate of fading of my colorful (but cheaply-made) polo shirts. I tried Clorox 2 (hydrogen peroxide + fluorescent dye to reflect more incoming light), and the shirts now seem not to fade as much. I wish I could afford better-quality shirts, and the fluorescent dye is probably bad for the environment.
Would it harm clothes to start out with a stronger concentration of hydrogen peroxide? You can buy a 35% solution online. By the time you mix 1/4–1/2C in a load of 10 gallons of water, that’s diluted by a factor of 240–480.
December 20th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Vinegar has many many household uses. It is 99.8% disinfective, neutralizes odors, shines up bathrooms and kitchens, polishes metals, and much more. I use it daily in the shower to prevent mold and mildew, but its equally effective for irregular cleanup. A simple Google search will avail hundreds of other uses for vinegar. Best of all its environmentally friendly and cheap!