The time you spend in the kitchen isn’t always glamorous. For every Instagram-worthy dish you make, there are about five labor-intensive chores required to keep your kitchen looking brand-spankin’ new. There are counters to wipe down, ovens to clean and dirty sponges to throw away. But our least favorite chore has to be cleaning the grout between our kitchen tiles.
What if we told you it was easy and that all you needed was an old-fashioned secret ingredient: baking soda? Intrigued? Read on.
Why Baking Soda?
You probably know that adding baking soda to your batter allows breads, pancakes and cakes to rise, but it also doubles as a great cleaner. In fact, it can actually be more effective than your dish soap. You see, soap and baking soda are both basic (i.e., they have higher pH levels), but soap contains fat molecules that make it gentler. Baking soda, on the other hand, is tough enough to handle the most stubborn stains in your home.
Pssst…here are 50 cool things you can do with baking soda.
So…What’s the Recipe?
We’re glad you asked. For best results, we recommend using baking soda and vinegar. When the acidic vinegar is combined with basic baking soda, the concoction fizzes up like a science fair project, but really works into all the grime on your grout.
The first thing you want to do is clean the area around the grout, by vacuuming, dry mopping or wiping down.
Next, apply a paste made of water and baking soda to those dirty areas, then pour equal parts warm water and vinegar into a spray bottle. Once you spritz the vinegar-water mix on the paste, you’ll want to scrub the solution-coated grout to remove stubborn dirt and grime. Clean off the vinegar, baking soda and water with a damp paper towel and voila! Your tiles will look like new.
Now that you know how to clean grout, the next step is finding the perfect scrubbing instrument. Some people will try to talk you into buying a fancy nylon bristle brush, but a toothbrush will get the job done for a lot less.