The Gluten-Free Homemaker

When we moved into this house five years ago, I was thrilled with the size of the eat-in kitchen.  We remodeled the whole thing, but one thing that didn’t need to be done was the floor.  The previous owners put in new ceramic tile before selling it.  The tile extends into the hall, powder room, and foyer, so I have a pretty large area of tile.

I never had tile in a kitchen before moving here, but I new from others that I probably wouldn’t love it.  First it is very hard to walk and stand on.  Second, it’s very hard for dropping things on.  Dishes and glasses break easily and the pieces slide a long way across the floor.  However, what I didn’t realize would be a problem was keeping the grout clean. 

I had experience with grout in bathrooms, but on my tile floor the strips of grout are much wider than in the bathroom, plus the fact that there is a much larger area of tile.  My tile is a light beige color and the grout is also light.  At least, the grout is light when it’s clean.  Having light color tile surrounded by dirty brown grout is not appealing to me, but until recently I didn’t have a good way of getting it clean.  I thought some of you might have the same problem.  Are you ready to see some dirt?  Here’s a tile and grout from one of the dirtiest sections.



Here’s how it looked after cleaning.  I’m sorry the colors are so different.  I probably took the pictures at different times of the day.



Maybe this picture will be more helpful.  It shows a larger section from the same area as the above pictures.  The grout at the bottom of the picture has been cleaned.  For some reason the tiles themselves look lighter too, but I think that’s just the lighting.



Here is a picture of that same area after it was all cleaned.  It’s not perfect, but you can see that the overall effect is much better.


So, you might be wondering how I cleaned it.  I used OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover.  I like that it does not contain chlorine bleach which gives me a headache.  I put about 1/3 scoop into a 32 ounce spray bottle with water.  I sprayed the grout well then let it sit for 30 – 60 minutes.  Next, I used a sturdy brush (mine is actually a grout brush but any will do) and scrubbed the grout to loosen the dirt, adding a little water if it had dried.    I then mopped it up with clean water.  I found that the OxiClean does the work and not a lot of effort is required scrubbing.  Extra scrubbing didn’t produce any better results. 

Because I have a large area of tile, I did this in sections over a number of days.  It works best to do it in narrow strips that you can easily reach from either side. It also works best to use a fresh mixture of OxiClean, so after the first time I only made half a bottle or less.  When you are not using the spray bottle, loosen the sprayer so air can escape.  Otherwise you will end up with the mixture leaking out the top. 

How do you clean grout?  Any tips?

For more great ideas visit Works for Me Wednesday at We Are That Family.

Labels: homemaking tips