Yesterday morning I had planned to get to work on painting the stairwell for the One Room Challenge, but I felt overwhelmed by the amount of dirt, dust, and dog fur everywhere. I decided to give the kitchen a thorough Spring cleaning instead, which consisted of wiping down cabinets, sanding and oiling countertops and cutting boards, cleaning each item on my open shelving as well as the shelving itself, cleaning the backsplash thoroughly, and lastly cleaning my white grout and tile floor. When we first had the flooring installed about 4 years ago, our contractor thought I was nuts for choosing white grout with our gray tile, but I loved the look (still do!) and knew what I wanted. I knew that it would show dirt easily, but I wanted what I wanted. Four years later, I still absolutely love it and have no regrets. However, our 3 dogs’ main living space is the kitchen, dining room, and downstairs hallway, so as you can imagine those spaces tend to get the dirtiest and dustiest. Jake, our 13.5 year old dog is losing fur rapidly these days (it grows back in), but the amount of grime and dirt he creates individually is astonishing. Additionally, we all use the kitchen door as our main door, so if it’s been rainy or snowing, we track in so much mud through that door. We also have to tend to the chickens every morning and evening, and come back in through that door, dragging in dirt from the back yard. One day maybe we can add a mudroom off the kitchen, but for now, I just have to clean up after us; and as you can imagine our floors take a beating. Over the past 4 years, I’ve tried so many different methods of thoroughly cleaning my grout, from bleach on a toothbrush, to specialty tile products, but today I am going to tell you all about what I have found to be the easiest way to clean white grout. It’s worth sharing with you if it will save you money and labor as it only involves one product! (This post is in no way sponsored… I just love this method and product! Affiliate links are used for your convenience.)
On a daily basis, I use natural cleaning products as well as DIY cleaning products. The only exceptions I make are when it comes to the toilet bowl, and once every few months I will use products that contain bleach or the like for a thorough clean. For my grout cleaning, the one product I use is Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.
These things really can do it all, but the only place I use them is on my grout. Before I get into my method with these, let me show you what my kitchen floor looked like after I cleaned it yesterday.
And here’s the same space back in February, when I hadn’t yet cleaned the grout. You can see how dingy the grout is in the photo below if you really look. I posted this photo in an organization post, and I saw it, but I just didn’t mention it. If I don’t point out the flaws, you’re less likely to notice. 😉
Now let’s get to the actual how to. All you need is a magic eraser (I needed two to clean my floor) and a few paper towels or rag.
- Dampen your magic eraser and ring it out a bit.
- Scrub along the grout with the magic eraser. You won’t need to scrub too hard… just a little effort goes a long way! Here you can see where I had just started to scrub compared to the area that hadn’t yet been touched.
- Use your paper towel or rag to blot up any residual water. The eraser will let out the dirty water as you scrub, and if you let it sit there, it will just settle back into your grout.
- Repeat until finished!
That’s all there is to it! The worst part about it all is just being on your hands and knees, so if you have bad knees, I recommend wearing knee pads like these. I will say, after the Super Bowl Mr. Clean commercial aired and I saw it with Chris, I thought for sure he’d want to take on the grout job. Ok, so maybe not. If you haven’t seen it though, it’s hilarious and worth watching!
To give you the full impact of the difference, I took before and after photos with a hint of my fridge and shoes in it for color and spatial reference, so you’d know there were no camera tricks. These photos were taken with my phone, so truly there are not many fancy tricks I could use anyhow.
Before:
After:
As you can see, they are much brighter and whiter! Are they perfect, well, no. But overall the impact of the difference is dramatic. This is what I had to work around, and also a big reason why they even get so grimy!
Here’s the side eye… are you done? Can I just lay down and relax for good now?
Has the Spring cleaning but bitten you? What tips do you have for keeping your house clean while living with pets? Do tell!
