Surprise Grout Cleaning

I can’t remember exactly when Russ and I redid our master bathroom. For years we suffered with the original 1950’s Grey tile, tub and double sinks. The sinks were big, but had no storage as they were Grey porcelain on silver metal legs. Russ wanted us to do a major bathroom renovation and increase our footprint. I thought there was a more conservative way that did not mean I had to lose my closet.

I went about designing a glass shower with no curtain and getting two smaller square bowl sinks that I put on top of a narrow wood console. The faucet came out of the wall so the sinks could be snug against the wall. These few changes made our tiny master more livable and I have been happy with it for the last fifteen or sixteen years.

In all that time we have had the original grout in the shower. It has held up great, but I am always on the search for the best cleaning product to keep the grout white. The caulking on the edge is my worst nemesis. It has yellowed and I think it is time to pull it out and redo it. My tile man who is coming tomorrow to do the kitchen does not want anything to do with the caulking.

Today in my regular cleaning of the bathroom I tried a new way to clean the caulk, which has yellowed, Oxi -Clean. Yes, the stuff I use in the laundry. I made it into a paste and put it on the caulk on the edges of the shower floor. I was trying to get that caulk a little closer to the white grout color, but that too had yellows, just not as much. After scrubbing the edges with an old tooth brush I rinsed the shower floor. To my surprise the Oxi that had been on the edges flowed over the grout on the floor and whitened the grout without any scrubbing.

I am still going to have to remove the old caulking and re-caulk, but the floor looks brand new. It was just a mistake that I stumbled upon this, but if you want to clean old grout try Oxi-Clean. And no, Oxi-clean isn’t paying me a cent for this, but they really should advertise it.