i apologize for the lengthy description about to follow, but i find it necessary because, while i only began keeping simple/easy houseplants two years ago, the story of this peace lily now has complications surpassing the success of my (now 17) other plants.

-this was the second plant i ever had, and i got it two years ago.
-i quickly learned that it would do well in a dark spot and that i could water it when it wilted to keep it happiest. it thrived in a dark, dark kitchen that received, yes, southern sun, but only for a brief time each day.
-when we moved this summer, a neighbor kept it for one month on her north-facing (but semi-roofed) balcony, which entailed a huge change to much more sun, wind, etc.
-the neighbor attempted to impress me by heavily, heavily watering this plant when i visited two or three times.
-by the time i finally could retrieve it, this peace lily had clearly been through "shock". however, it seemed to have begun some adaptation and was doing ok all things considered.
-when i got it to the new home (beginning of october, but we have had a strangely temperate and even summer-like fall here), my initial thought was to return it to a similar dark space such as it had last year. the closest lighting at the time (and now) actually has a north-facing lighting that is of similar weakness to our old kitchen's south lighting.
-the lily was sopping wet (and at this time i bought my first moisture gauge.) it looked like it was almost dying, but i cut the dead leaves and waited for a few weeks.
-the plant then looked near-dead (after 2-3 weeks), and although the bottom 4 inches of the soil (10 inch pot) were still registering as "wet" on the guage, i cut it back drastically and watered it...thinking "well, i havent watered this thing in weeks. after all its a lily. maybe the soil has been wet, but..."
-OOOPs! i forgot to mention that i had just repotted it 1 1/2 months before abandoning it with my neighbor! it did well after (for that month and a half) but...
-anyway, the last drastic cutting and watering served it well! the remaining stems/leaves perked-up and we got one serious new growth.
-then, a week later, it started to look like the pictures i include here. i have moved it to a sunnier west window (in hopes that it will dry out some as its pot is plastic) if only because its location assures that i will pay more attention to it.
-the dirt on top of the soil in the pictures is just a dusting of new potting soil from a different plant recently planted from cuttings that suffered a fall from a higher shelf this last week, and so please dont judge too much from soil-heighth, etc. i didnt clean the spilled soil out of this lily's pot because i am on the verge of digging it out to look for rot.





thanks for reading! sorry so lengthy! what do you think?

thanks for the good info.

sounds as i expected (so now i dont feel too dumb)

well, i'd just pluck it out of the soil it is in, remove any mushy roots, put it in good, new, dry soil, and water it in well, making sure it drains, the let it dry to a "normal" level of about an inch before watering again. i don't know about the peroxide thing, never tried it.