All Your Questions About How to Clean Grout, Answered

Grout is one of the main problem children of any bathroom, kitchen, and mudroom. The pasty substance that fills the gaps between your tiles is porous, absorbent, and rather difficult to clean. First and foremost, when you're installing tile, consider going with a darker grout rather than a pristine white—it'll hide dirt better. But you don't want to just hide dirt—you want to keep things clean. We feel you. So let's start with some common mistakes: When it comes to tiled floors, mind your cleaning methods. As you're going to town on sticky floors, your mop may be doing more damage than good, staining the grout with dirty water. You also might be tempted to go a little crazy with the bleach. That would be a mistake. While it would no doubt take care of bacteria, bleach can seriously damage and discolor your grout. But never fear! There are ways to get that grout spic-and-span. You can try store-bought solutions, or in many cases, you can take on the task with items you already have on hand. Once you tackle the grout cleaning problem, you can take things up a notch by changing out bathroom countertops, adding wallpaper to the bathroom, or even starting from scratch in the tile department. You got this. Welcome to your new grout-standing life.