I AM GOING TO MAKE THIS.

Yes! This sounds great! I recently bought a bunch of hydrogen peroxide for cleaning, but had yet to find a recipe with it that I liked.

One question: Do you have any trouble with it over time in the Windex bottle? I think light breaks down hydrogen peroxide (hence the brown opaque storage bottle that it is sold in), but maybe storing the Windex bottle in a dark place gets around that?

Another question: do you have trouble with the spray bottle interior metal parts rusting? I have an old fabreeze bottle I use to spritz bleach on my countertops and it gets rusty between uses )c:

I was wondering how long the potency of this solution lasts?

And if you're not using it, does the lemon start to go bad?

Its the hydrogen peroxide that is truly unstable. It is stable when concentrated, but once you dilute it expect it to decay fairly rapidly. As a PhD scientist, I'd expect it to "last" less than a week, even if refrigerated. We routinely use hydrogen peroxide in experiments, and make fresh solutions daily. But perhaps for household, after a week it still has enough "umph".

Thank you, lazy_lurker - I was wondering why my hydrogen peroxide homemade cleaner was, well, kind of crap. I think this is why.

I'm going to start making it as I go.

Just because it's safe on wounds doesn't mean it's safe for pets!

If my cat walks on / lays on a surface that is still damp and then licks his feet or the fur that's gotten damp -- i.e. if he ingests some of this -- is it safe?

@ Kushkush- Hydrogen peroxide will not harm you pets in such small amounts. Even if it were in a high concentration, the worst that would happen is she would have foamy puke for a little bit. Of course any kind of puke, regardless of consistency, should always be avoided, so as with all other cleaners, keep your pets away until it's all dried.

I use the new spray bottle contained hydrogen peroxide bottles, they are handy.
Also, you could use black electrical tape or duct tape to cover the bottle that you use to mix it in, to keep light out.

Sorry, but prefer using vinegar for cleaning, as well as baking soda. According to some research, hydrogen peroxide can be toxic. **I don't know if these websites are valid, but I've always suspected that it "could" be dangerous. Obviously, if one is very careful, there may not be problems. But, if you have children or animals, I don't think it's worth the risk. Vinegar is natural, and if you Google it, you'll see all the ways you can use it.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002652.htm

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts174.html

My vet used hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting in my cat who ate a bunch of yarn. Of course he refused to vomit and they had to go to plan B, but essentailly the vet said it would not harm the cat, it just tasted absolutely awful, hence the vomitting.

I use white vinegar and baking soda for general cleaning. I don't combine the two until I'm actually cleaning. I use plain vinegar for cleaning windows, its better than commerical products.

Joy, those websites are fine--but hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is not "toxic". It's irritating. H2O2 is used for disinfecting cuts because it reacts with damaged cells and dirt, breaking down the dead and dying cells, and helping to clean out the wound. It breaks down into water and oxygen. This is the same reaction as "oxygen bleaches" like OxyClean use. I think it's also used in "whitening" toothpastes.

The regular drug store H2O2 is 3%, and this recipe dilutes it even further down to about 1%. Personally, I'm not sure I'd use this as a spray (even at 1% I don't think I'd want to breath it), but as a surface wipe or rinse this sounds great. It should be more disinfectant than regular white vinegar. Diluted H2O2 is actually used as a mouth wash (it tastes weird), and it breaks down so fast, I can't imagine that cats would have a problem. Of course, my cats wouldn't go near this stuff til it dried--they hate citrus.

Given how quickly H2O2 tends to fizzle out (literally--the fizz is the extra oxygen bubbling out), I can't imagine the solution lasting very long.

I use H2O2 to "bleach" blood stains before washing. I think I'm going to try this combo on my cutting boards--I've got red stains from beet juice on them!

Oh, and by the way, vinegar isn't really any more "natural" than H2O2. The regular supermarket white vinegar is produced mostly from corn starch and sugars, converted (usually chemically) to alcohol, then fermented (again, sometimes chemically) into vinegar.

I'd like to weigh in on the peroxide. I have been instructed by my vet to use peroxide to induce vomiting in my dog that ate chocolate. Worked well. But it was work getting it in her. I wouldn't worry about a pet purposely lapping it up. And as far as cleaning a wound with it...I'm a nurse in a wound center and we discourage the use of H2O2 after the initial injury. It's really good and killing bacteria but it's cytotoxic to the new cells trying to heal the wound. Use a mild antibacterial soap and water for daily cleaning. But I digress ;)

I really like (!) this recipe, but after reading a couple of comments/questions about the shelf-life of the lemon juice, I think I'll tweak it by just adding lemon essential oil instead. But I do love this recipe. I've ordered a collection of essential oils the other day, and I can't wait for them to arrive so that I can start making cleaning solutions. Thank you!