If you didn’t already know, it should really come as no surprise to anyone that I am slightly OCD.
Yup, I’m the one who needs all the pictures perfectly straight, the furniture dusted, and my floors ARE clean enough to eat off of…for reals.
Our house is kinda old, built in the late sixties or very early seventies, and we haven’t done a major overhaul on the kitchen, so I still have the old porcelain tile with white grout, which poses difficulties keeping spotless and sanitary even for someone like me whose middle name is “Bleach”.
Every so often, I step out of my Louboutins, throw down my Chanel, and get my hands dirty for a purpose — to freshen and reseal the grout.
Until we remodel and tear out the countertops, this is an excellent method of keeping everything looking clean and fresh.
And it’s SO easy!
This is what I use; it’s bright white ‘cos that’s my grout color. I purchased it at Home Depot — it’s pre-mixed and EASY to use.
STEP ONE:
I use my finger because I’ve tried a lot of other tools and nothing works better. I don’t even wear gloves, but you really should.
Just scoop up a mess of grout and push it into the space between the tiles, dragging your finger down along each square ’til it’s filled and even.
Make sure you really wash that stuff off your hands; it’s very drying and probably toxic!
STEP TWO:
Take a rag or a sponge (or both) and carefully wipe away the excess grout. Let it dry overnight and then wipe off the tiles again.
STEP THREE:
See the little brush? Turn the grout sealer upside down and squeeze just until enough sealer coats the brush; continue to squeeze, and paint all the grout with the sealer, let dry for about an hour and add a second coat.
When it’s dry, wipe the tile with a clean, damp cloth to remove any excess grout.
Voilà!
Beautiful grout again…sparkly clean and shiny, easy as 1-2-3!
Enchanted Seashells by Princess Rosebud 
Good work! Is it as easy to change a grout color?
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It probably is, you’re reading my mind, next time, I’m going to use a light gray that will pick up the specks of gray in the tile.
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Read what Dan Antion said in his comment. It doesn’t sound too hard and I would love to try it.
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Nice job. You’re probably also extending the life of the tile. The new grout and sealer will help keep the water from getting behind.
If you want to change the color, you might want to take the existing grout down a bit. You can buy a little carbide clean out tool that you can run along the grout line and it will remove just a little bit. That would give you a slightly deeper groove to fill in.
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That is an amazing tip, thank you Dan! It would be a great project next time hub is gone for a couple of months cos that’s how long it would take me to do it! Hundreds of 4 inch tiles hmm. Yes, a long time!
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My husband says that if you use the epoxy grout, you don’t need the sealer. He’s OCD too.
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OMG thank your hub so much and I will def use epoxy next time. Awesome tip from your OCD hub!!!
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Wow. Great job
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Merci, my friend!
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We just bought a house and I’m currently steam cleaning the tile floor grout. I might just get some of this stuff, for floors, and re-do it. It’s driving me nuts that parts are white and others are ick.
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Oh, I know just what you mean! When we moved in 30 yrs ago, I thought the grout was brown or gray it was so dirty; it took hours with bleach and a toothbrush to clean it, Now I’m waiting to win a kitchen makeover so I can have a huge slap of granite and NO more grout! But if I did, I’d go with gray or light brown. White is SO hard to clean.
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it’s beautiful! hoo-rah for you! good job!
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Hoo-rah back atcha! Next time, granite!
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Great idea and it looks really good!
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Thank you! I love things that are easy to do!
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Me too and love how it looks so brand new even after all the years 🙂
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I think the people we bought the house from had not cleaned it in 20 years so it’s like the dirt protected it!
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Wow, can’t imagine someone letting it go like that but know that there are people like that and let things go.
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These people had a son who built a motorcycle in his bedroom. We had to totally gut the whole house before we moved in. Price/location were worth it, exhub was a builder, so it was just fun for him.
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That’s great that you were able to get it at a good price and location and then gut the house.
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That’s prob why we’ve been here for almost 30 years, couldn’t afford a house in this area now!
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I live in a 1959-built house with three bathrooms all covered in ceramic tile. Ceramic tile that has grout of all different colors, and worst of all is starting to pull away from the wall around the bathtub! Sigh. I don’t like house repair (bills). 😦
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That sounds like such a headache!! Sounds like a job that’s bigger than I could do on my own! Do you have one of those pink bathrooms? (I love those!)
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