Cleaning: Grout

I kept seeing a "hack" to clean your grout using toilet bowl cleaner, and decided to put it to the test. First, to make sure it actually would clean better than just a bathroom cleaner I did a face-off test between Kaboom Bathroom Cleaner (which works very well in my bathrooms!) and Lysol Toilet Bowl cleaner. I'd like to note I didn't get the fanciest toilet bowl cleaner, I just got the cheapest Lysol one available to me. 

Let the face-off begin!

Product applied. 

At this point I already preferred how easy it was to apply the toilet bowl cleaner. You just rest the tip of the bottle in the grout line and pull it to you or away from you in a straight line. For this test I only let the product sit for about 30 seconds before agitating it with a large tooth/denture brush (my favorite for grout cleaning). I noticed the toilet bowl cleaner seemed to turn white and "look like it was working" a little more than the other spray. After about a minute I used a wet regular yellow dish sponge to wipe away the excess. There were more clean spots under the toilet bowl cleanser so I decided to proceed. 

    As I mentioned, the toilet bowl cleanser was super easy to apply, but I did feel all the hunching over the next day!. I applied to all the grout in my kitchen/ breakfast nook area and could instantly see the blue cleanser turning white. I let this sit for 5-10 minutes then agitated the entire thing with a denture brush. This is what really had my back sore the next day, but it was amazing to see the gunk coming out! 

After agitation with the toothbrush.

A close-up so you can see the little chunks of "gunk."

    After this first scrubbing I let it sit for another 5-10 minutes. At this point you could totally just rinse and be done, but I decided to do a second agitation using an electric spinning brush I have for cleaning. I did this second scrubbing extremely fast, only concentrating on the most heavily trafficked areas. 

    After that second scrubbing I took an old rag and wet it to begin rinsing the floors. I ran this wet rag along each grout line and rinsed when it started getting to built up. I tried to just get as much darker water/gunk up with this step as I could. 

    Lastly, I used my steam mop to go over the entire surface twice. I did let it dry a little in between. I think, looking back, it probably needed at least one more mopping/steam cleaning as I felt tiny sand-like particles were still on the surface. If you do not have a steam mop any mop would be fine to use. 

    Here is how it turned out! I'm extremely happy. It looks like brand new grout. As you can see in the before picture below the grout was very darkened and caked with gunk. While it may have looked like the floors were clean, they definitely needed this little extra boost! 

BEFORE

AFTER

    Thanks for sticking through to the end. I definitely recommend using this technique for a deep grout cleaning, but if you're of a certain age be prepared to feel it the next day. I'd love to hear if you have tried or do try this, and how it worked for you. Take care!

-Lizzy