Best Practices for Cleaning Grout?

Charlotte@Living Well on the Cheap  —  September 24, 2013 — 17 Comments

The grout in our downstairs bath is supposed to be white. I know this because it fades from dingy gray to bright, clean white in the areas that don’t see much traffic, like under the vanity and behind the toilet.

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From a distance nothing seems to be amiss, but up close the floors never look clean no matter how often I mop.

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I’ve made a few halfhearted efforts to scrub it clean, but seeing as this room is on the large side as far as bathrooms go I have only worked in small sections, not wanting to invest a ton of time into a method I’m not sure will work. I haven’t found anything that impressed me enough to do the whole room yet.

So I thought I’d ask you guys-what are your best techniques for getting grimy grout spic and span? I’ll test out the most promising suggestions and report back on what worked for me. And then I’m going to seal that grout so this doesn’t happen again!

Charlotte@Living Well on the Cheap

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17 responses to Best Practices for Cleaning Grout?

  1. I use OxyClean and a grout scrub brush on ours and it seems to work pretty well.

  2. I’ve heard scrubbing with a paste of lemon juice and baking soda or salt is supposed to work well - looking forward to seeing what works best for you; I need to tackle our grout soon!

  3. I’m going to keep an eye on this post for tips. We’ve been talking about tiling our bathrooms. So far my thoughts are larger tiles (so there’s less grout to begin with!) and a gray grout….so at least the dirt won’t show as much? But yes, actually cleaning it with a good method should help as well!

  4. I’ve used OxyClean in the past but what has worked best for me (and I have the exact same tile as you) is to spray straight hydrogen peroxide on it and leave it for a while. Good luck!

    • Charlotte@Living Well on the Cheap September 25, 2013 at 10:16 am

      You know, I’ve never tried straight hydrogen peroxide. Adding that to my grocery list for this week!

  5. Whenever I have a difficult stain I make a paste with water and baking soda, let it dry and then wipe it up. For tougher stains I add oxyclean to the mixture.

  6. using an oxyclean product has hydrogen peroxide chemical in it which helps to loosen and dirt/grime from grout. Using any HP cleaner should work good on grout. For really tough jobs use an oxyclean with a steamer.

  7. Use magic erasers! I know it’ll be super time consuming (probably a couple hours with lots of breaks because of tired arms). But it works really well. In my old apartment the grout was disguuuusting. It was the sponge-y kind of grout that soaks up everything and never came clean from mopping.

    Here’s a before/after: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8aya0j3pY1qzeg4ro1_500.jpg

Trackbacks and Pingbacks:

  1. The Cheapest, Easiest, and Most Effective Way to Clean Grout | Living Well on the Cheap - October 3, 2013

    […] week I posted about the stained, dingy grout in my downstairs bath and asked for tips on how best to clean it. My goal is to get it white enough to seal, and since this room is on the large side as far as […]

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