No, I’m not talking about my intestines or bowel function. I’m talking about that gray stuff between my floor tiles that turned black.
I decided to clean them because they were ugly and dirty. Little did I know, having never done this before, what a mess it would be.
First I googled it, writing down the home made recipes for an efficient cleaner. Then I ordered a long handled, stand up grout brush.
Attack. I mixed the ingredients, moved furniture and poured the ‘cleaner’ on the floor and started scrubbing. But the cleaner didn’t clean. So I experimented with other ingredients. Added some Oxy; then added some Dawn dishwasher—better but still not clean.
Then added some Clorox. Much, much better but still took a lot of elbow grease. In exasperation and slipprey floors, I dumped pure Clorox on the floor. Viola. Magic. It worked like a charm.
So now I have Clorox all over my floor, the scrubber working vigorously and clean grout. BUT, I also had very dangerously slippery floors, Clorox splashing on walls and the whole mess grew like Topsy. In desperation I gingerly made my way to the bedroom, which doesn’t have grout, and grabbed a Pirate T-shirt, ripping it in half. I hated to sacrifice the Tshirt of my favorite team but it was all cotton, which I needed.
Back to the task. Next, I dumped Clorox, scrubbed with the long handled brush, and bent over to mop excess Clorox up with my black half a Tshirt. After a few hours, it was done and looked so good. But parts of me ached a lot.
But my cosey little unit smelled like the inside of a train station bathroom. When I opened the door from the hallway the next day, the astringent smell hit me in the face. It made my eyes water.
And the floor was smeary. Reluctantly I admitted to myself that further action was required.
So I spilled pure water over an area, mopped up with a sacrificial bath towel and worked methodically around my unit, careful not to slip and fall. Something might break and I sure didn’t want that to happen.
Finally, it was all done. Clean and fresh. My floors look really good and I’m proud of the cleanliness. But what a mess to do!!
The next unit I move into will have clean grout before I move in. It will be one of the essential elements I required.