Homemade Grout Cleaner: The Best Simple DIY Recipe - The Creek Line House (2024)

This is the best homemade grout cleaner recipe I’ve tried. It’s excellent for just freshening up discolored grout in a bathroom or on a backsplash, but it also works well for deep cleaning grout on a dirty mudroom tile floor.

I wanted to make sure to share this homemade grout cleaner recipe soon because this is the time of year when we all start to get really impatient for spring to get here, and we start wanting to freshen our homes up for spring. If you have tile in your entryway with light colored grout, there’s a good chance that cleaning your grout is on your spring cleaning list. Even if you’ve sealed it with grout sealer, grout still has a way of picking up extra mud and dust. I don’t always endorse it because I think that it often gets people into a frustrating cycle of letting things get really bad and then cleaning to exhaustion and not wanting to tidy up again for months after that.I usually think it’s better to just clean in tiny baby steps and do it only a daily basis and this grout cleaning recipe is perfect for that. If a big spring cleaning frenzy is your thing, though, this will definitely work wonders for that method of cleaning as well.

Read next for more about tiled floors: What to Know About How to Grout and Tile Using 12×24 Tiles

Tools and Ingredients Needed for the Homemade Grout Cleaner

You’ll need:

• Baking soda (let’s face it, baking soda is the answer to so many things)
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Dish soap
• A toothbrush (one reserved just for cleaning, of course)
• A soft, damp cloth
• A little dish

I love a good, simple homemade cleaning recipe like this, especially when it works as well as this one.

By the way, that’s a travel toothbrush, which is why it looks so weird and stubby. That size seems to work well for cleaning things like this.

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How to Use the Homemade Grout Cleaner

In your little dish, mix together:

• 1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide
• 1/3 cup baking soda
• 1 tsp dish soap

Once you discover how well this works on all your tiled areas to clean grout, you might be tempted to make this by the gallon or use a spray bottle, but making a small amount at a time is actually best to make sure you’re getting all the ingredients mixed together in the right amounts when you go to apply it to deep-clean your grout.

This solution should be safe to use on almost any type of grout, but do a test in an inconspicuous spot first, just to be sure before moving on to tackling the rest of the room. Stir all the ingredients together with a teaspoon, then use the spoon to drop a bit of the mixture over your grout lines, until the grout is covered.

Leave it to soak in and let it work its magic for about 10 minutes, then grab the toothbrush and gently scrub. You’ll be amazed at all the dirt that you see bubble up and out of your grout! It doesn’t take much elbow-grease at all.

To remove the cleaner, rinse and wipe it away with the damp cloth, rinsing it, and re-wiping as needed.

Wait for your grout to dry fully, then sit back and admire your results!

Work in sections about three feet by three feet as you make your way around the room. You can either do one section per day or keep going and do all the sections one after the other over the course of an afternoon. Whatever works for you.

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Homemade Grout Cleaner Results

The grout in our mudroom is still pretty new, so it’s not too dirty yet, but I was still impressed by how clean the grout is now! This is definitely one of those cleaning projects that I actually find kind of fun. It’s just so satisfying to see all that dirt coming out.

Poof! All clean!

Definitely give this homemade grout cleaner a try, and let me know how it works for you!

Don’t forget to pin this idea so you have it the next time you need it!

If, after trying this method, your grout still isn’t quite as fresh looking as you’d like it to be, you might want to try grout stain to give your space a fresh new look without having to retile the whole room. I haven’t had to try that method yet on any of our tile flooring, but I’m keeping that idea in my back pocket if I ever need it. I’d love to try it out, I just haven’t had to yet because this ground cleaner works so well!

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Other Areas Around the Home to Use DIY Grout Cleaner

As we’ve seen, this recipe is so effective for tile and grout in areas of the home that see a lot of dirt and grime, like a mudroom or entryway, but this method is easy and gentle enough to use anywhere that you might like to see cleaner grout in your home, or even as a tile cleaner.

This is one of the best cleaning solutions for porcelain bathroom tile because it allows you to clean mildew and soap scum away in showers, bathtubs, on caulk, and tile grout at the same time. Your tiles and tubs will sparkle and your grout will brighten right up, looking good as new without using bleach cleaners or other harsh chemicals.

If you’ve had a spill or stain on your tile countertops, this natural grout cleaner is a solution that you don’t need to be worried about using in areas where you prepare food. You don’t even need to break out the rubber gloves or worry about keeping the area well ventilated the way you do with some commercial cleaners.

There are other porous finishes around your home as well that are prone to staining and where this homemade cleaner can be useful. Although it doesn’t involve grout cleaning, this solution can be useful to use if you have a stain on a concrete or stone floor or outdoor patio area, or if you have a garage floor that hasn’t been treated with sealant.