The Miracle Cleaning Power of Water

I have been getting my house ready to sell and my to-do list  seems to be getting longer and longer every day. I am amazed how many things have been on my list since they day we moved in (almost 4 years ago). One of these (never-seem-to-get-to) items is to address this:

And no, the grout is not supposed to be dark grey. Gross right?

I find it is one of those tasks that gets forgotten - how many people pay that much attention to the kitchen floors anyway? OK, maybe a lot of people. But it seemed like a big and not very fun task so I kept on putting it off - for 4 years. Now that I am about to invite a bunch of strangers into my house to criticise it I finally bit the bullet and decided to tackle this gross grout one night.

I remembered a pin from a friend that made it seem like there was a quick and easy solution. I'm sure you have seen similar pins all over Pinterest.




After a week of cleaning with various cleaners around the house all week I was also looking forward to a less harsh cleaning solution, and one that promised to be quick and easy.

I will admit I was a little hopeful (With so many version of the same thing being re-pinned all of the time it had to work, right?) yet skeptical. In principle I do not like vinegar and backing soda miracle "cleaning solutions." On occasion I do clean with vinegar and baking soda separately, but I don't understand why you would mix them together. If you have ever taken a high school chemistry class you know that when you mix the two you will end up cleaning with water. The one time I do mix the two is for maintenance drain cleaning, but it is for the bubbling action not the "miracle cleaner" that results from mixing the two (though water itself is a great cleaner). When it came to cleaning grout I thought this bubbling action may be helpful again.

So I went through my kitchen cupboards and gathered my supplies.

Water, Vinegar & Baking Soda

I adapted the directions a bit to hopefully make it work a little better for me.

1. I made a paste of water and baking soda and using a small brush and worked the paste into the grout and gave it a light scrub.
    
2. I then sprayed the baking soda covered grout with vinegar and watched it bubble away for about 10 mins.
3. I  gave it another light scrub then sprayed with water and wiped the tiles down.

This is what it ended up looking like.



It is a little cleaner, but I'm thinking I would have had the same results with just spraying with water and scrubbing. It definitely did not end up looking like the pin results.

In the end I was not really out much (except my time) as I already had everything on hand. There are other version of similar recipes out there that I considered trying. But since I already wasted a night on this in the end I used a commercial grout cleaner. Maybe I will give the others a try in my next house.

Keeping it fresh

So I have been a little bad with updating with new posts. OK, I have been awful about it. Hopefully I will have some time this week to finish up some late posts and get them on here.

Is back-posting a no-no in the bloggersphere? Oh well, who will know.. :)

In the meantime there is one pin I found working today in the back of my fridge. As I noted before my fridge is the place where vegetables go to die. I have to admit that celery is one of the most common victim. I usually end up buying it for a recipe (or oh a whim), use 10% then the rest wilts and decomposes into a slimy mess in the back corners of the fridge.

Now I can't find the original pin (likely part of one of those list of tips) but it is a quick and easy to explain so here it goes.

1. Trim the bottom of the celery
2. Place in a tall cup with a little bit of water

So far the typical storage advice. I think what makes it work is the next step...

3. Place a plastic bag over the celery
4. Place in fridge

This worked great for me. My celery was in the fridge for over a month (probably more like 6 weeks) and I took it out today and had a piece. It was fresh tasting and crisp (probably better than the day I bought it).

 I would recommend this method for longer time storage.