Many would agree the worst part of hurting yourself as a kid was being tortured with hydrogen peroxide as your parents tried to clean you up. The burning, the pain, the horror! It turns out that peroxide is good for way more than just sanitizing minor scrapes, though. We're talking wayyyy more! From cleaning out your ears and whitening your teeth to treating acne, there are a ton of hydrogen peroxide uses that you’re missing out on. Even the savviest DIYers are sure to find some new tips and tricks on this list we’ve put together. We’ve rounded up the best hydrogen peroxide uses out there. So restock at Target and then sit back, relax, and learn some new life hacks. Do you have your own hydrogen peroxide hacks and tips that we didn’t include here? Let us know on Facebook, and don’t forget to SHARE these tips with your friends!

Is your carpet in need of a little love? You can clean it up with just three ingredients — hydrogen peroxide, lemon essential oil, and water. Mix two parts water with one part hydrogen peroxide and five drops of lemon essential oil. Make sure you use a dark bottle (like the one peroxide comes in). Shake it up and it’s ready to go. Just spray it on the stained carpet, let it sit for a minute or two, and then use a brush to scrub the stains out. This solution works on upholstery, too, and you can repeat the process a few times until you get your carpet and fabrics squeaky clean!

No matter how many times we’re told that Q-tips are not safe for your ears, we still use them often. Have wax buildup in your ears? Peroxide is a better solution than stabbing at your eardrum with a cotton stick. Instead, administer a few drops into your ear canal and fill it with fluid. Keep still for 5 minutes, then blot the outer ear with a tissue to absorb any liquid that comes out.  Note: This isn’t an effective remedy for people with damaged ears or infections. It’s just for some maintenance on otherwise healthy ears!

Getting a breakout because you aren’t cleaning your makeup brushes often enough is not the way to a #flawless look. Before you shell out $30 on some designer solution, raid your medicine cabinet. Simply drop a teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide into a bowl of warm water, and soak the brushes in there for 10 minutes. Once the time is up, rinse them with cold water.

Raise your hand if you hate those pesky yellow armpit stains on your precious white shirts! Well, on second thought, maybe don’t raise your hands … Anyway, you probably know that bleach is not the answer. So, what is? You probably guessed by now, but yes, hydrogen peroxide can help. Combine two parts hydrogen peroxide with one part Dawn dishwashing liquid and let the solution sit for at least an hour. Then just spray it on the stain and scrub, scrub, scrub. You can add some baking soda for heavier duty staining.

Sometimes you have the heat up too high, or you’re using an absolutely ancient pan, and before you know it your cookware is covered in burnt spots. Before you destroy your hands with steel wool or scouring pads, try this DIY remedy. Make a paste of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide, and apply that to the burnt, dirty areas. Let it marinate for a bit and then use warmish water to scrub it away. The stain should come off pretty easily, but if it doesn’t, simply repeat the process, leaving the paste on a little longer the next time.

For some people, no matter what they do, they still end up with dry, cracked heels. Unless you are made of money and have time for constant spa pedicures, you’ll be on the hunt for an at-home remedy. That’s where this hydrogen peroxide hack comes in. Soak your feet in a mixture of two cups of peroxide and two cups of hot-as-you-can-stand-it water for about 30 minutes. Dry your feet off and scrub your dead heel skin with a pumice stone or coarse foot file. When you get all the dead skin off, wipe your feet off again with a towel, lotion them up, and put on some nice fuzzy socks. Ideally, you’re doing all of this at bedtime and can sleep with the socks on. Voila!

Just because you didn’t pay extra for organic produce doesn’t mean you have to infest the harmful pesticides generally used on fruits and veggies. Water alone might not do the trick, but this hydrogen peroxide solution sure will. Spray your produce with some food-grade peroxide, let the mixture sit on the food for a minute or two, and then rinse and dry. Next, spray the produce with some vinegar; combined, the two agents work detoxifying wonders!

Bleach is a household staple, good for cleaning everything from floors and appliances to your fabrics, but man, does it smell! And it’s probably not great for the environment, either. Not to mention, if you have sensitive skin, it can be a real irritant. Don’t abandon hope for having sparkly whites just yet, though. You can whip up a bleach alternative with just two household ingredients — hydrogen peroxide and lemon juice!

Peroxide is great for disinfecting countertops and other areas of your bathroom. All you really need is peroxide, water, and a spray bottle. Mix equal parts water and hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle, spray it onto the areas you want to clean, and scrub or wipe them down.

Keeping a retainer clean can be a real chore, but it doesn’t have to be. Mom4Real.com has a great tutorial for a retainer cleaning solution that’ll keep your mouth fresh and help maintain your investment; after all, braces and retainers are not cheap. All you’ll need is a glass jar, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, peppermint essential oil, and water! Plop the retainer into a jar and add enough cold water to cover it, plus one tablespoon of peroxide, a sprinkle of baking soda, and one drop of peppermint essential oil. Stir it all up and leave the retainer to soak for about 10 minutes.

Canker sores are … unpleasant, to say the least. But you can help alleviate the pain and heal them a bit faster by breaking out the peroxide. Swish some water and hydrogen peroxide around in your mouth for about 30 seconds, spit, and rinse with plain water. It’s important that you not swallow the peroxide, so if you’re worried about swishing, you can use a cotton ball to dab the mixture on instead. The peroxide will kill the bacteria in your mouth and help you heal faster.

Ever hear people talk about baking soda or peroxide as tooth whiteners? It’s not just an old wives’ tale. Hydrogen peroxide really can help to brighten your smile. You can either soak your toothbrush in peroxide and then brush for two minutes, or you can add some peroxide to water and swish it around in your mouth as you would mouthwash. Repeat a few times a week for the best results.

Just like your teeth, your nails can yellow, too. It can happen for a bunch of reasons— diet, nail polish, or handling dyes or spices, to name a few — but peroxide can save the day no matter what the cause was. All you have to do is soak a cotton ball with hydrogen peroxide and use it to swipe your nails, just as you would do with nail polish remover. Presto, change-o, whiter nails!

Not keen on spending hundreds of dollars on a balayage treatment or highlights? You can try the at-home, DIY hair lightening method instead. You can use hydrogen peroxide to lighten your hair slowly over time, or for some natural-looking highlights with a little help from the sun. To try the slow-and-steady method, mix equal parts water and peroxide in a spray bottle. Spray the solution onto your hair and comb it through. Once it’s all dry, you’re done. You can repeat the process routinely until you get the desired result. For some express highlights, spray the same solution onto select strands of ff and then spend a day out enjoying the sun. Repeat this a few times and you should see some noticeable results!

It’s amazing that there are so many different glass cleaning solutions on the market when you can get the job done — superbly, nonetheless — using products you already have on hand at home. To use hydrogen peroxide to get streak-free, shining mirrors, simply spray it onto the mirrors and wipe it off with a paper towel, ideally going in a circular motion. If you have particularly dirty mirrors, you may need to use a bit more peroxide and elbow grease.

Not only is mold unsightly and gross, but it can cause so many different health problems, too. Depending on the severity of your mold problem, you may need to call in some specialists. But if you recognize what you see as your average, run-of-the-mill household mold, you can use some hydrogen peroxide to get rid of it — and treat the area to prevent mold from growing in the future!

Sure, dishwashers are great in theory — when they work! But if you don’t take care of your dishwasher, clean it regularly, and stay up to date on its maintenance, your dishes will come out less than lustrous. Before you run off to buy every product on the planet, give this hydrogen peroxide hack a try. Add a few drops of peroxide to your regular dishwasher detergent, and your dishes will come out cleaner than ever. It’s that simple.

Back to mold for just a sec. It loves moist, damp surfaces and areas. What could be more damp than the inside of your humidifier or dehumidifier? The two home appliances can rack up some mold quicker than you’d think. What can you do? The answer is simple: add some peroxide to the water in the tank every now and again. As it cycles through the device, it’ll clean the mold out.

While we all love the summertime, it's also the time of year when we remember how annoying some pests can be. Whether it's mosquitoes attracted to our blood or ants attracted to that juice spill that wasn't thoroughly cleaned, the little bugs are a nuisance. You can create an all-natural, DIY “pesticide” with just some water and hydrogen peroxide. Add some peroxide to a spray bottle full of water and spray the solution wherever required. It'll help keep bugs away.

Acne comes in all shapes and sizes, and can be caused by such an array of things that it’s often hard to treat. You can start by using hydrogen peroxide as a kind of all-natural toner. Just soak a cotton ball or cotton round and swipe it over a clean, dry face. The trick here is to not go overboard. Peroxide kills bacteria, but it isn’t choosy. If you do this too often, you’ll kill your skin’s good bacteria, too. No bueno.

Hydrogen peroxide can be used to remove rust from hammers or other tools in just minutes. Pour some hydrogen peroxide into a small container and let the rusted metal soak in it for a few minutes, according to HomeQuicks.com tutorial. Then just take some steel wool or a brush and scrub. Additionally, you can mix borax with hydrogen peroxide to create a handy cleaning solution.

Believe it or not, hydrogen peroxide can be used as an alternative to mouth wash as a way to kill bad breath. If you swish peroxide for about 30 seconds once a week, it should eliminate a vast majority of the unhealthy bacteria responsible for bad breath. A word of caution though: Don't overdo it. You don't want to kill the good bacteria in your mouth at the same time.

We've already covered how hydrogen peroxide can whiten your teeth if they're yellow, but that's not the only thing it can do for your pearly whites. According to many reports, hydrogen peroxide mixed with water makes a great remedy for a toothache. They claim holding the mixture in your mouth at the location of the aching tooth for 5-10 minutes significantly reduces the pain. It's obviously not a replacement for real dental care, but definitely a good short-term solution if a toothache becomes unbearable.

If you're struggling with a yeast infection, hydrogen peroxide might be the cure you're looking for. Simply mix three percent hydrogen peroxide with one cup of water and soak your tampon in the mixture. From there, use the mixture once a day after your symptoms disappear.

We can hear you doubting this right now, but it's true: Hydrogen peroxide – mixed with dish soap of all things – makes a good deodorant substitute. Mix the hydrogen peroxide with dish soap in a 1:2 ration, then leave it on for a half hour before washing it off. Like a few other hacks on our list, we would recommend this more as an emergency step than an everyday use.

Anyone willing to venture a wild guess at what the main ingredient in most commercial lens cleaners is? Shockingly – or not so shockingly since you've read this far – the answer is hydrogen peroxide. That's right, you can use normal hydrogen peroxide to clean your lenses just as well as store bought lens cleaners for a fraction of the price.

Kitchen dishrags and sponges might as well be called germ magnets with the amount of dirt and grime these kitchen tools pick up. However, a little hydrogen peroxide can get them clean quick... and maybe even lengthen their respective lifespans. Simply spray your rags and sponges with hydrogen peroxide while they're in the sink. This will kill a vast majority of the germs they're harboring. In addition, cleaning them this way will also allow you to fully wash them less often, meaning they'll stay together longer.

Babies and toddlers have a habit of putting, well, everything in their mouths. That's why many advise wiping down all their toys – as well as play areas and etc. – with hydrogen peroxide regularly. Added Bonus: It's safer to use hydrogen peroxide on children's belongings than store-bought cleaners, as it won't cause the type of lung irritations that many commercial cleaners will.

It's easy to overlook tiny food particles in coolers and lunchboxes since they build up slowly over time. To combat this, simply spray down the inside of the lunchbox/cooler with hydrogen peroxide, let it sit for a few minutes, then wipe it down with a cloth or paper towel. We'd also advise keeping household pets out of lunch boxes and coolers, but that's less hack and more common sense...we'd hope.

This is probably the reason many of you have hydrogen peroxide in your home already, but it bears mentioning anyway that hydrogen peroxide is very useful at cleaning and disinfecting small wounds on both people and animals. Simply apply directly to minor wounds to clean away dead tissue, halt minor bleeding, and prevent infections. However, it's important to remember not to go overboard, as using hydrogen peroxide too often will adversely affect healing.

If you're looking for an alternative to those chemically-overloaded store-bought toilet bowl cleaners, then hydrogen peroxide can help make a more natural solution for your home. And you might already have the ingredients on hand to put this together. You'll need 1/4 cup of hydrogen peroxide. Mix that with 1/2 a cup of baking soda as well as 1/4 cup castile soap in about 1/2 cup of warm water. Once mixed together, squeeze in lemon juice from half a lemon. Voila, you've created a fresh scent toilet bowl cleaner!

Do you try really hard to have a green thumb, but no matter what you do your plants keep succumbing to fungus? You can create an all-natural, DIY germicide with just some water and hydrogen peroxide. Add some peroxide to a spray bottle full of water and spray the solution onto the wet soil after you water the plants. You can just let it soak right in and it should help prevent any unwanted fungus from harming your plant and taking the nutrients it needs.

The Farmer's Almanac has a nifty hack for deodorizing those old shoes using some hydrogen peroxide. As hydrogen peroxide oxidizes, it can also help to break down the bacteria that causes bad odors. You can mix the hydrogen peroxide with baking soda to make a paste and put it into your shoes. Allow it to dry and remove the dried baking soda. It should help break down those odors, but might require a few treatments to really make a dent in the smell if the shoes are...um...quite ripe, as they say.

With kids and pets around the house, it's tough to always keep track of everything. How many parents have given their kid a treat only to find out the kid didn't eat the whole thing and either gave some directly to the dog or left it where the dog could eat it? If it's chocolate, that's bad news for the dog. You can induce vomiting with an emetic of hydrogen peroxide, according to the ASPCA's Animal Poison Control Center. IT MUST be a hydrogen peroxide solution of three percent or less. You should do one teaspoon per every five pounds, and should never exceed three tablespoons total. (Sorry for the italics. We just want to emphasize the important things so no additional harm would come to the animal.)

Stained clothing can be a real pain in the butt. You never know when something might drop from the kitchen table or a mishap can cause a cut that gets all over your clothes. Blood stains are some of the hardest to get rid of on any article of clothing (unless it's black, we guess). But hydrogen peroxide is there to help. Add some hydrogen peroxide to the area of blood stain and allow it to set for several minutes. Then wash under some warm water with detergent or soap. It might take an attempt or two, but the hydrogen peroxide should help lift the stain.

Even though you're using your towel to dry off after your bath or shower, it's still accumulating plenty of dead skin cells. And those dead skin cells find their way into the fibers of your tool and begin to decay. While a regular wash certainly helps, it won't always get all those little cells out of the towels, or the bacteria that decaying cells produce. That's why it's recommended that every so often you add 1/2 cup of hydrogen peroxide and another 1/2 cup of vinegar to your load of towels. This will help get rid of any bacteria and the stale smells that come with it.

Here's a truly ingenious hydrogen peroxide hack. As you've noticed, hydrogen peroxide does wonders when it comes to killing germs and bacteria. But you usually have to spray it onto a specific surface for it to work its magic. But what about germs floating about in the air? Well, hydrogen peroxide can attack them too. If you have a humidifier, you can add create a one-to-eight mixture (one pint per gallon) of hydrogen peroxide and water in your humidifier. Add in a few drops of lavender essential oils and the steam will cleanse your air and provide a soothing scent around the house.

While there's never a quick-fix to treat a cold other than to wait it out and allow your body to build up the necessary antibodies, you can help get rid of some germs or bacteria with the help of some hydrogen peroxide. For some people, it's beneficial for them to put a few drops of hydrogen peroxide into their ears. This can help kill off harmful germs faster so you (or the kids) can get back on your feet more quickly.

Another handy hack for when you're feeling under the weather is to detox. If you can kill as many germs and bacteria on your body, it'll help fight off any illness faster. Taking a detoxifying bath is a great way to clean your skin. Add hydrogen peroxide to your warm bath water and soak in the tub for about 30 minutes. Afterwards, rinse off in the shower or rerun your bath water. The hydrogen peroxide will help clear your skin and wash those terrible toxins away.

One of the dirty things that always sneaks up on us in our house is the bathroom tile. The grout so gradually changes color that it often goes unnoticed for likely months before you look one day and just say, "Yuck!" Well, hydrogen peroxide is there to save the day. Most likely, the grout is becoming discolored from mold, and we know how great hydrogen peroxide is at clearing mold and other bacteria. So, whip up a mixture of hydrogen peroxide with a little water and lemon. Spray the grout and allow it to set. You'll need to work some elbow grease, but that grout should shine much easier than if you had just used soap and water.

Having a foot fungus or athlete's foot can be a nuisance. Your feet are itchy, but the fungus can also build up on your toes and make them embarrassing to display if you're going to the beach or wearing sandals. While it's recommended to visit a podiatrist and get some topical cream, some experts and DIY-ers say hydrogen peroxide can be a solution. Just apply the peroxide (usually diluted with water) to the affected areas twice a day, and it may kill the bacteria once and for all. If it doesn't work after a few weeks, then you should visit a healthcare professional.

Do you have a specific cutting board in the kitchen that is used mostly for meat? If so, cleaning with soap and water is always a necessity, but even that doesn't always get rid of all the potentially harmful germs borne from meat. If you really want to make sure that cutting board has been disinfected thoroughly, soak it in hydrogen peroxide after washing it with soap and water. This will make sure all those germs are dead and gone before putting the board away in the cabinet.

If your bright, white curtains or tablecloths aren't looking so bright or white anymore (or have maybe incurred a couple stains over the years), you can bust out the trusty hydrogen peroxide to help return them to their original luster. If you're just doing some spot cleaning on the fabric, just wipe down the affected areas with the peroxide and it should help remove the stains. If the entire fabric is in need of help, you can throw them into the washing machine and add hydrogen peroxide to the washer to help brighten up those household items.

Speaking of curtains, your bathroom shower curtain is also a breeding ground for bacteria and soap scum to build up. If you have a fabric shower curtain, that can go into the wash with some hydrogen peroxide mixed in with your detergent. Vinyl shower curtains can be hand-washed right in the tub in warm water with hydrogen peroxide mixed in. You can let the shower curtain soak in the tub for 15 minutes, so you don't have to use too much elbow grease to scrub it.

You're doing your part to help reduce your carbon footprint and cut down on disposable items. That's why you have those handy reusable shopping bags in the car or kitchen for every time you go to the store. But you should be treating them just as you would any other surface that comes in close contact with food. Germs can be left behind and those breed dangerous bacteria. Use hydrogen peroxide to clean the inside of reusable shopping bags to make sure all those pesky germs are taken care of.

Every once in a while the cleaning bug hits you and you do a deep clean of the household refrigerator. It's so easy to miss little spills and other food stuffs that might get left behind in there, which can harden and become difficult to clean, but also breed nasty bacteria. While soap and water is the obvious answer, you should also wipe everything down with a solution of hydrogen peroxide and warm water to help kill all the germs the soap might not eradicate.

Do you have overly large, hardened calluses on your feet? Or maybe painful and annoying corns? Well, hydrogen peroxide might be your new best friend. You can help soften calluses and corns by soaking your feet in a mixture of warm water and hydrogen peroxide. Soak your feet before bed each night to help soften the affected area and help alleviate discomfort.