Thursday, January 24, 2013

Saw It. Pinned It. Did It: DIY Grout Cleaner

Today I'm linking up with Katie and Steph for Saw It. Pinned It. Did It.  And I'm featuring some DIY grout cleaner!  How un-exciting, I know.  But let me tell you, it worked!  I was cleaning my bathroom this weekend and realized how gross and dirty the grout was on the tile floor.  I'm embarrassed of how dirty it was, but for the sake of SI.PI.DI., I'm showing you.

I remembered pinning some grout cleaner on one of my pinterest boards, and since I had time, I decided I would try it out.
Original Pin:
Amazing Grout Cleaner. 7 c water, 1/2 c baking soda, 1/3 c ammonia, 1/4 c vinegar. Spray on, scrub, wipe off. NON-TOXIC!

The original "recipe" called for ammonia, but I didn't have any, so I just skipped it.  On the website of
the original pin, it has the original formula and also a halved and quartered version. Since my bathroom was pretty small, I used the quartered version:

1 3/4 cup water
2 Tbsp baking soda
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp ammonia (I didn't have any, so I left this out of mine)
1 Tbsp vinegar

I mixed the ingredients in my spray bottle and found an old toothbrush that I would use to scrub the grout (they make grout brushes for this purpose, but I didn't have one). I sprayed some of the cleaning mixture on to the grout lines and let it sit for a few seconds and then started scrubbing away with my toothbrush.

After I scrubbed one row, I wiped it away with a clean towel. And boy was I impressed! My grout lines weren't perfectly clean, but they were wayyyyy better than before! It didn't take me too long too complete my entire bathroom: probably only 30-45 minutes.

Here are some before and after shots of my bathroom floor tiles:

Before

After

The top half has been cleaned and the bottom half has not...you can really see the difference!

Now every time I'm in the bathroom, I stare at the floor in amazement of the clean grout (is that weird?). I'm hoping to do this on kitchen tile grout this weekend if I have time. I think my kitchen grout lines are more dirty than my bathroom was, so I can't wait to see the results when I finish!



22 comments:

  1. oh this is great!!! We need to do this very badly in our house!

    www.savanahsmiles.com

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    1. After seeing the difference it made in my bathroom, I really need to do it in my kitchen!!

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  2. So glad to see this worked! Will definitey have to try it!

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    1. I was impressed with the results, so hopefully you will be too!

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  3. just found your blog via the link up and as soon as i read your about me blurb i had to join. I'm recently engaged and on the house hunt, if nothing else we've got that craziness in common!

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    1. Congrats on the engagement! And good luck house hunting! It can be stressful, but totally worth it in the end!

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  4. Wow that really is amazing! I guess that I always figured those pinterest tricks didn't really work. It's good ro see posts like this of people who have actually tried it and made it work! Just found your blog and have loved getting to know you better. I hope you don't mind if I follow along!

    new follower :)
    bonnie
    thelifeofbon.com

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    1. That's why I love the SI.PI.DI link up...getting to see if those pins really work! And how hard or easy they really are. Thanks for following along!

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