THE BEST HOMEMADE GROUT CLEANER

How do you clean dirty grout naturally?

I prefer other cleaners and if I can make my own, that’s even better. It’s not that I’m anti-bleach, I just prefer other cleaners that smell nicer. Unless you have something particularly nasty or bodily fluids to clean up I don’t think you need to go as drastic as bleach when cleaning.

Ingredients for homemade grout cleaner:

– Dawn dish soap – Vinegar – Baking soda – Lemon juice – Bleach – Hydrogen peroxide

Grout cleaning tools

All you need is an old toothbrush to clean grout. If you don’t have one laying around then go treat yourself to a new toothbrush and delegate you old one as your grout cleaning brush. You could also buy a heavy duty grout brush specifically for the job.

Cleaning grout with bleach

I used bleach on a portion of the grout because I wanted to see how it compared to the other cleaners. Surprisingly it wasn’t the most effective. In the past I have used gel toilet bowl cleaner and run it along the grout lines to clean and disinfect them. It worked well but not as good as the next ingredients I’m about to share with you.

My grout cleaning experiments

I started cleaning different areas of the grout with the different ingredients I listed above. I used lemon juice, peroxide, baking soda and vinegar first. Then I used combinations of the ingredients. Surprisingly the hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and Dawn didn’t work the best despite it’s what most bloggers on the internet recommend.

Cleaning grout with vinegar

Simply pour or spray it onto the grout cracks and let it sit for a few minutes. Dip your toothbrush into more vinegar and scrub it clean.

Will the acid from the vinegar ruin the grout?

You only need to clean grout like this a few times per year, so no, it won’t eat away at the grout if you are doing this occasionally. Sanded grout is basically like cement and it’s very sturdy. Unsanded grout may be more prone to damage from the acid.

Will the acid from the vinegar ruin the grout?

Just in case the acidity could cause problems that I might not know about, I sprinkled a little baking soda onto the counter after I wiped away most of the vinegar to help neutralize it.

Grout cleaner with Dawn Dish Soap and vinegar

The soap helps the vinegar stick instead of just running straight down the tile. Dawn has excellent cleaning properties of its own . Mix the vinegar and dish soap in a spray bottle 50/50 and spray it on the grout and let it sit for a few minutes. Scrub the grout lines with a small brush and then rinse clean.

Do you need to re-seal grout after you clean it?

You can seal grout a couple of times per year using a water based sealant. An easy way to seal your grout and whiten it even more is to use a grout pen.