Use Toothpaste To Clean Your Grout?

My kitchen grout is black.  It's not supposed to be--turns out it is supposed to be a light gray color.  Fortunately, I can tell my conscience that it isn't my fault--it was that way when I moved in.  But that doesn't help me get it clean, does it?

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser will do it.  Buuuut grout isn't exactly sponge friendly.  I realized I would have to go through many boxes of magic erasers to get my whole floor done.  Not exactly budget friendly.  Besides that, chewing through a majillion of anything to get one floor clean rubs me wrong (no pun intended).

That's when I discovered that toothpaste is magic too! There are truly so many amazing uses for toothpaste (Besides, of course, the all important tooth cleaning capabilities).  Someday I will do a post highlighting my favorites, but this is definitely at the top of my list.

There are a couple of tips I've picked up cleaning my entire floor.
1) Bring an old cup of water around with you (old cup, not old water...).  The toothpaste needs to be nice and sudsy to work best.

2) Also bring an old rag.  Otherwise you will get beautiful grout with a line of really dirty muck on either side.  Trust me--if you wipe it up as you go you will thank yourself later.  If you leave it for the end ("I'll just mop the whole floor when I'm done...") it will be all crustified and twenty-two times harder to clean.  Don't ask me how I know.

3) Don't use your husband's brand new toothbrush to scrub your floors. Oh, you already knew that?  Huh.

4) This is still going to take some time and elbow grease.  Major bummer, I know.  But every time you see your kitchen floor (which is, what, all day every day?) you will get a happy smile inside and outside.

5) Minty fresh floors?!?  Mmmmmm yes please!

Answering unasked questions: yes, there are two different colors of grout in that picture--it's not a trick of the light.  Yes, one of those colors is pink.  Yes, my grout is crumbling in many places...that's a whole different problem for a whole different post. Perhaps a "How to get your husband to pay for and lay a hardwood floor" post?