It's the Little Things

I'm not a huge Pinterest person, but I do like to use it to search for new recipes and other miscellaneous items. One thing I've found helpful are some of its cleaning tips. I decided to take on the tile that covers most of our main floor, from the foyer, to the kitchen, to the hall leading to our garage. There is a 25 year build-up of grime on the floor that no amount of mopping seemed to eliminate. I even purchased a steam mop last year, thinking that might do the trick. While I like using the steam mop over a traditional bucket/mop combo, it still didn't seem to get the floors that clean.

Over the past few weeks, I've tackled a section at a time, using one of the Pinterest tips. Here is a photo of a section:

Lighting is not good, but please note the dirty grout on the left and the clean grout on the right
 

How did I get the grout so clean, you ask?

Yes, toilet bowl cleaner (with bleach). I was able to easily squeeze the cleaner into the lines of the grout, scrub with a brush, then mop it up. Afterwards, I would use the steam mop to make certain all the bleach was gone. It's been a process, but I've been happy with the results. I tested another idea, that was more 'green.' You had to spread baking soda into the grout and then spray it down with hydrogen peroxide. This created a foaming action that could then be scrubbed and mopped up.  However, since I've never done a line of coke, I was not very handy at spreading the baking soda into the cracks. Talk about tedious!

And now you all know what a boring life I lead!