the Grout
I won’t do this often, but I felt the need to share something with you. I realize I share many things here, but cleaning advice is not something I dole out lightly. For a couple of reasons. One reason being that I don’t like to be made to feel guilty and quite often if I come across things of the organizing or cleaning nature out there on the “world wide web” I feel like a schmuck….I start looking around at all my untidy places and….and quite frankly it overwhelms me. If you know me you know I’m fairly organized and my house is what most would call clean, but somethings have been left to their own devices. With that said the second reason is I wouldn’t ever want you to get the impression, that I have it all together and my house is all sparkly clean and organized….heyck no.
However, I am somewhat geeked about my grout cleaning adventure. So I had to share it with you. A few months back I was looking at pictures and noticed that my kitchen floors looked different. Taking a closer looked I realized it was because the grout was four shades lighter. Ewww!
See what I mean. Can you believe that I had greasy grimy gopher guts all over my floor? Egads!
Tilex Mold and Mildew to the RESCUE!!! Note: the Tilex people don’t know who I am, I’m only promoting their product because it just happened to be the first thing I grabbed in my cleaning bucket and it worked!
Friday my kiddos had a snow day. I think having them around gave me some nervous energy and for some unknown reason I hauled out the Tilex, a toothbrush, and a bucket of clean water, and started scrubbing the grout in my kitchen. To my horror and delight the grime easily scrubbed away revealing a floor that looks like new.
A few squirts, a scrubba-dubba, and a wipe with a clean wet cloth and Voila!’
I am blessed to have quite a large kitchen area, but unfortunately that means I have an abundance of grout full of grease, grime, and gopher guts. So this project may take a while. I figure I’ll work at it bit by bit. I already enlisted my littlest, she thought it was great fun at first, but then after about ten squares she declared, “my back is aching momma.” I had sympathy on her and released the chains.
By revealing what is underneath the grime, I think most people (unless they found themselves face down on my kitchen floor….God forbid), would have just thought that was the color of my grout. So now as you can plainly see I’ve opened a can of worms. I will do a full grout reveal as soon as I get my act together. Don’t hold your breath. (Which could lead to you passing out and falling face first on your kitchen floor, which may bring you closer to your gopher guts.)
Good Day!
Fantastic post! You might want to use a Clorox bleach pen…. its easier, less tiring, and it saves a lot of time and a lot of effort. You can also use a steam cleaner, which is so great at removing stains from the grout. The steam easily penetrates the grout’s porous surface. No need to use a toothbrush to get inside those tiny, hard to reach places.
heh, first time on your blog, re directed via Pioneer Woman.
THANKYOU for the tile tip, I hate dirty looking grout.
Oh my goodness, my grout was a disgrace to man kind! If you have any grout cleaning tips I’d love to hear them. Thanks for stopping by…ya’ll come back now ya hear ;D Sheila
If you don’t enjoy the smell of the Tilex (ewww), Dawn, or any other degreasing soap works great too. Painting on a clear grout sealer after it is clean helps cut the next scrub down to half the time and your grout stays looking cleaner longer! Just thought I would share and help preserve someone else’s knees!
Yes! Bring on the advice I am always open to hear what others use and what works for them, i rather not waste money on trial and error. Cleaning products are expensive. Do you have a grout sealer you have used and like? I would love to know. ; ) thanks Wendy!
I have tile in my kitchen too. I bought an electric scrubbing machine that doesn’t really do the trick so on my knees I go. I hate it. I like a clean kitchen floor.
I envy your clean floor 🙂