Monday, February 07, 2005

Grout is Evil

Recently I have been thinking how nice it would be to update the look of our house by putting in some of the newer ceramic tile. The last time we put in carpeting, my husband wanted to tile the family room, and I said no. Why did I say no? Besides the fact that I can be an idiot at times, I thought about the amount of time the family has spent sitting or laying around the family room floor to watch TV or a movie. I have since graduated from that point of view to the realization that carpeting holds all kinds of dirt, dust, and bugs... no matter how great your vacuum is or how often you vacuum or shampoo your carpeting.

This all sounds reasonable doesn't it? Don't be fooled so easily! I decided it was time to do a really thorough job of cleaning the grout in the bathroom tile floor. Now for many people this would not be an unusual decision. However, I am not a great housekeeper... not a bad one, just not a great one. I can keep up with the usual stuff, but the deep cleaning stuff often goes by the wayside...usually until I decide it is time to decorate for Christmas. I like clean, I just don't like to do clean!

So... I bought some grout cleaner. While sitting on the toilet one night, I decided to see how well it worked... just sprayed the grout in a few square feet. I let it sit for awhile. About twenty minutes later, toothbrush in hand, I was scrubbing the grout I had sprayed. Wow. It was dirtier than I had thought. I now had some very clean lines of grout that made it perfectly clear how dirty the rest of it was. So I sprayed some more and used the toothbrush some more. Later that evening my husband got out of bed to inquire what on earth I was doing scrubbing the bathroom floor at midnight.

I am still working on the grout in that same bathroom. I am almost done. It has been a struggle. When I clean in one area and happen to overlap an area already cleaned, the area of overlap turns out brighter than the areas on either side. So then, of course, I have to go back over the areas that are not as bright! On and on and on and on... If grout could have any kind of a wicked smile, I am sure that my grout is fiendishly sneering at me. It will not let me go!

There are still a few stubborn areas. The bathroom is not small, but it is not that big either. I am trying to picture a whole house full of this stuff. I am trying not to picture what it would take for me to keep it clean and bright. Maybe I will look into hardwood flooring... or a really great maid.

8 comments:

L said...

Grout is indeed Evil.

I would advise against acquiring another maid, however. We all remember that snake/dishwasher/maid incident....

CG said...

The mexicans got this right - *black* grout. No fuss - no muss - no oddly bright patches of grout. :)

aardvark al said...

Midnight floor scrubbing is a bit strange. Were you sitting on the toilet the whole time?

Rhodent said...

Aardvark Al - No Al, I was not on the toilet the whole time. However I do get mt best ideas or schemes while sitting there or while taking showers. Using a toothbrush on the grout required being on my knees. Getting up off my knees to rinse the toothbrush and get the towel to wipe the floor was the hardest part.

Having 4 children requires finding anyplace you can to get some quiet or think time! My children are older now, but the habit remains. :o)

Rhodent said...

L, I try NOT to remember the snake/dishwasher/maid incident! Could it possible ever happen AGAIN?!? Lord have mercy!

Gel said...

I enjoy your way of writing about everyday life. :) Love your line (if I may paraphrase), that "you like clean, but don't like "doing clean! I'd like a cleaning person, but the problem (besides not having the funds for one), is that I clean up before the cleaning person arrives and see below for the *health issues.* (Ok, many of use pick up the clutter prior so that the deep cleaning can be done).

However, I've found that most cleaning people are not into "sanitary" methods which seriously bothers me, so we live in santized dirt lol for awhile... until someone here pitches in.
Course, you (or I), could choose to blog instead of cleaning! *G*

Gel said...

Aardvark AL: Midnight cleaning, baking or anything is most definitely *not* strange to nightowls. (BTW: Rhodent, re: your current post about cat vs dogs as pets, I sleepwalked to let my dog out, but usually my husband did so...and luckily the breed dog we had did not bark. I'm soooo not a morning person.)

beetle said...

I can get caught up in stuff like this. Actually, I get kinda OCD when it comes to cleaning house. Once I get started, I feel like I have to finish everything in the whole house. Otherwise, what cleaning I did acomplish will just get dirty again right away cause I'll just track dirt in from the other room.

When I was getting ready to sell my house, I worried about the look of the grout in my shower. It was clean mind you, but years of well water had done it's damage.

I found this stuff at Home Depot, I can't remember what it was called, but the bottle sort of reminded me of shoe polish. Basically, I think it just painted or stained the grout white. It actually looked quite nice. I don't know how long it lasts because I just wanted to make it pretty so, I could sell the place. ;-)