This is NOT a glamorous post.
As you may have noticed, I’m a bit anal about some things and my house cleaning is one of them. One of my biggest pet peeves? Dirty grout. I always attempt to ignore it for a while, but it eventually gets to me. And then I usually try to clean a small section just to see how bad it really is. It’s always worse than I thought!
Now that the new house is mostly in working order, the kitchen grout finally got to me. It has white tile, which makes it more obvious than most and I just couldn’t help myself!
Being pregnant, I wanted to find a “cleaner” way to scrub and, since it was during naptime when I had this overwhelming urge, I needed to use something we had in-house. Enter Pinterest and it’s amazing resources of random information. I found a bunch of different ideas, so naturally, I decided to make up my own recipe. And it’s been working amazingly well!
Ingredients:
- 1/4 c. Vinegar
- 2 T. Baking Soda
- 1 T. Lemon Juice
- Squirt of Dish Soap
I’ve been working in about 5×5 foot squares and this amount usually gets me through about 2 of those. You could easily make a larger batch, but I kind of like the bubbling effect to be fresh when I go to use it. I have absolutely no scientific data to back this up, but it just feels like it works better. : ) Plus, I’ve only been doing a small area per day to preserve my back, so it helps not to have to store it in between cleaning sessions.
Mix up the solution, apply it to an area, and let set for 5-10 minutes to allow it loosen the dirt. And then get scrubbing! I definitely recommend a stiff brush (or 2!) to get you going. After an area has been scrubbed, I wipe away the residue until I’ve done the entire area is complete. I’ve been following up with a quick sponge mop of the newly cleaned tile and once I’ve completed the whole kitchen, I’ll do a complete mop again to top it off. 
This is a really easy way to spruce up any tile area in your house and it mostly just takes time and effort!
What are your cleaning hot spots?
Rosanna Vega says
I’ve been using different store bought detergents for the grout in the kitchen and it’s never clean enough. I’m making my own all-surface cleaner, but never thought about mixing a grout cleaner (at least I didn’t try finding a recipe for it). Your recipe seems to work perfectly good , so I’m trying it right this weekend. Thank you!
Tabitha Blue says
Oh great!!! I hope it works as great for you as it did for us!!! We’d love to hear when you try it 😉