Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Tile Grout Cleaning: 101


I. AM. BEAT.

I totally feel for all of you that have a kitchen MUCH, MUCH larger than my teeny 10x10 hole in the wall.

Or, am I envious?
...cuz having such a tiny kitchen IS NOT ideal for this I LOVE TO COOK AND BAKE MOMMA!

BUT when it comes to cleaning the grout of my ceramic tiled kitchen floor, I THANK GOD that my kitchen is itty bitty :)

I cleaned my kitchen's ceramic tile grout today.
It was a feat that I think I deserve a medal for because OH. MY. GOSH...it was painful, and you betcha' my body will be feeling it tonight and tomorrow morning! Yes, it needed to be done and all but geez, I don't know. I think I will add it on to my girls' list of stuff they need to do to earn their allowance every other week...LOL.

Anyway, I thought cleaning the grout for your tile had to be done either professionally or with one of those steamer things or something like that. OR maybe it was just that I was in denial that I would HAVE to do it someday...verdicts still out on that one...

My friend, Kelly, just cleaned her grout a couple weeks ago and did it with some heavy duty scrubby thing and some regular ol' Mr. Clean. SO, I grabbed my laundry pre-treating toothbrush, some hot water, a towel and since I don't have Mr. Clean to help me out, I settled for some spray cleaner that was under my kitchen sink. It was Daily Shower Cleaner. Not too sure what THAT was doing underneath my kitchen sink, but eh...it's some sort of cleaner and should do a good job :)
I sprayed the grout and started scrubbing.
I started to freak a little because I thought I was taking the grout out or something...like dissolving it, because there was a thick, muddy-like yuck coming up off the grout.


Uhhh...yea. It wasn't the "dissolving grout", it was dirt.
It was years (probably like 8 years) of ground in yuck of spilled juice, chocolate milk, pancake mix, muddy footprints, whatever found it's way to my kitchen floor that didn't belong there...just yuck.

Not really sure why I let it go for so long. I mean, I wash my kitchen floor at least once a week. Maybe my subconscience KNEW I would kill my back and my knees cleaning the grout, so it just always slipped my mind. Yea. That's it! Wait.
What slipped my mind....???

I will tell you this.
I WILL NEVER let it get like that again!
I LOVE the look of my CLEAN NEW light gray, no longer black, grout!

WOW.
Really.
Just look at that CLEAN GROUT!
Nothing like clean grout to make a momma happy!! :)
...ANNNNNND now I will have to take a year off of blogging to recover from the aches and pains...LOL
:)


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5 comments:

  1. Take some Tylenol, now! Trust me on this one, LOL! I had to take it half way through my endeavor and wait for it to kick in because I knew I wouldn't be able to move the next day to finish the job!

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  2. I will :)
    And you KNOW I was talking about you...LOL! :)

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  3. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm following back!

    We just cleaned all our tile (kitchen and two bathrooms). We make a mixture of OxiClean and water and wipe it all over the floor. You let it sit for about 15 minutes. Then use a grout cleaning brush, scrub the grout. After the OxiClean has done its work, it's a lot less elbow grease to get the grout clean. An idea for next time....

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  4. Looks great! My back hurts just reading this post! lol!

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  5. Ugh, I hear ya! I had white tile with cream colored grout (not my idea, but the previous owners...) I liked to use Arm and Hammer's Washing Soda. Not Baking Soda, but the big yellow box and a toothbrush. It took me like hours and hours and my hubby thought I was nutso. Thank goodness we did away with that darn white tile/grout in my kitchen. I still use this method on the tile in my dining and bath rooms. It's safe to use on colored grout too.

    Chelle

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