Homemade Grout Cleaner

By Melody
Well, my kitchen floor is in serious need of some grout cleaning.  I would rather clean my stove than clean the grout.  And, I only clean my stove annually...if that!!  So, you can imagine the germs lurking within the in-betweens of the tiles of my kitchen floor.  So, I set out on a search for a recipe for a good homemade grout cleaner.  I found one on Lowe's Home Improvement facebook page.  The recipe is as follows:

7 cups warm water
1/2 cup baking soda
1/3 cup ammonia
1/4 cup vinegar

I mixed it up, got out my handy-dandy spankin' new grout cleaner brush (think giant tooth brush), and went to town.  I generously used the concoction since it mixes up a large amount of cleaner.  I let it set on the grout awhile after scrubbing.  Let me tell ya, I scrubbed and scrubbed, and my brush definitely went through hell!  The thing now looks like an excessively over-used toothbrush.  After I was finished, I did notice a change, but not as much a difference as I had hoped for.

This is a lot of work, and I had hoped for a little more of a result without having to scrub so hard.  Next time, I think I will use one of the recipes I found that utilizes bleach instead.  Bleach would really eat at that grime a little more, in my opinion. If I did this recipe again, I would use less water -- maybe only five cups of water, as opposed to seven. 

Here's my results:

BEFORE



AFTER


I did a third step and steam cleaned my kitchen floor after wiping down the scrubbing.  This seemed to do the trick.  Still next time I tackle the grout, I will try a recipe with bleach, and see if that makes a difference.

AFTER STEAM CLEANING FLOOR AFTER CLEANING GROUT

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