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A colleague of mine recently visited the home of a celebrity, and, as anyone would do, he peeked into the kitchen. “Would you believe it?” he asked, “She has a tile countertop. I wonder how she keeps the grout clean.”

Okay—you and I would have opened the refrigerator and the cabinets and had a look around, but his focus on the tile got me thinking. How do you clean tile grout?

There are a few types of grout. Epoxy grouts are showing up in more and more homes. They’re about as stain-resistant as the tile they hold together, so they’re a great option for keeping clean floors. 

But other types of grout, like the cementitious grouts, can be a magnet for stubborn stains and harmful mildew. These grouts are much more common, and require a little more maintenance.

These grouts are very porous. Dirt and grime can sink in, and washing the tile doesn’t get the stains out of the grout. Your tile floors, countertops, or bathroom walls never really look clean with rivets of grime between them. That’s annoying, especially in the bathroom where mold and mildew can thrive in your grout’s pores.

So, I did some research, and I found a safe, easy way to clean grout using oxygen bleach and a little elbow grease.

That should make a big difference in the grout. Once it’s clean, you could have it sealed. But if you’re a renter, or you just don’t want to expend the effort on that, try adding a little oxygen bleach to your regular cleaning solution and swab it around from time to time. Always rinse well.

I also read that some people use vinegar to clean grout, but the acidity can be hard on grout and tile, so I’d skip the vinegar. Chlorine bleach can clean and disinfect, but the smell is noxious and any spills would damage fabric. Not my first choice.

And as for that famous person with the tile counter—she probably has a cleaning service. But maybe they clean her grout this way, too.

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