Y’all, I feel like I’ve struck gold. I’m sure I’m not the only person to ever do this, but I’ve never seen it before. If you search “how to clean white grout in a shower” on Pinterest, you’ll find all kinds of recipes that all include things like baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, etc. But the main thing is that those recipes all include instructions that require you to put on some gloves and start scrubbing your grout.
That’s all fine and good, but when you have a huge shower (ours is about 7′ x 7′, so somewhere around 49 square feet, because it’s wheelchair accessible), scrubbing the tile on the floor to make the grout white again can be a two-hour job. I’ve generally used my steam cleaner (this is the one I have — affiliate link), which I still love and use regularly, but even that is a long process in such a huge shower. And while it was cleaning the soap scum off of the tiles, it still wasn’t getting the grout back to its original bright white color.
Right after I finished tiling and grouting our shower back in May 2022, I remember a few people warning me that I’d regret having white grout on a shower floor. And I remember brushing off those comments, thinking to myself, “Meh, I’ll let Future Kristi worry about that.” Well, on Friday, that Future Kristi was down on her hands and knees in the shower, scrubbing and steaming the grout, and cursing Past Kristi for her decision to use white grout on the shower floor. 😀
Here’s the problem. Our shower has a low spot on the area that’s supposed to be level, and that low spot catches and holds water. But it doesn’t just catch and hold clean water straight from the shower head (which would still be a problem because we have hard water). It catches and holds water filled with soap and hair conditioner.
Not only is all of that soap scum ugly to look at as it discolors the grout, but it’s dangerous because every time it gets wet again, it’s very slippery.
I wish that I would have noticed that low spot before tiling the floor so that I could have used a self-leveling concrete product on that area before waterproofing and tiling the floor, but I didn’t. I was just so anxious to get the tile done that I didn’t notice it or think about it.
When I have the shower curtains up, it’s really not a problem because the shower curtains keeps the water contained in the area of the shower with the sloped floor.
But about six months ago, I took the shower curtains down to wash them and never put them back up. 😀 I kept meaning to put them back up, but just always got sidetracked and never got around to it. So that low area was looking awful and discolored.
I wish I had taken before pictures, but to be quite honest, I had no intention of blogging about cleaning the shower tile. It didn’t even cross my mind that I’d be sharing this on the blog, so taking before pictures was nowhere in my mind. I could kick myself for that now because I truly feel like I have struck gold here.
Anyway, after getting my steamer out and scrubbing that area of the floor, the tile was getting clean, but the grout still looked discolored and dingy. I was so frustrated, and began making plans to find time in my schedule to buy some Grout Renew so that I could paint the grout on the entire shower floor. That seemed to be my only option for getting the grout back to its original bright white color.
And then I had an idea. I had just purchased a two-pack of this product…
I shared a while back that this is what I use to remove stains on our white concrete countertops in the kitchen (in addition to its intended purpose of keeping toilet bowls sparkling white). On our countertops, I put this directly on the stain, cover it with paper towels, leave it overnight, and by morning, the stain is gone.
I thought if it works on mustard stains and other stubborn stains on white concrete countertops, I’ll bet it’ll work on white grout! Plus, it has that very handy spout on it that makes it so easy to apply exactly where you want it. So I got a bottle and went to work. But I only put it in that one corner of the shower where the water settles when the shower curtain is down. It took less than 10 minutes. I did it right before I went to bed, and left it there overnight.
When I got up the next morning, I went into the shower and used the hand held sprayer to wash it off, and that grout was BRIGHT WHITE!! I mean, it was so white that that corner looked brand new, and then the rest of the floor looked dingy in comparison. 😀
At that point, I had no other option but to do the rest of the floor. Then I was cursing myself for getting myself into a situation where I was going to have to put that stuff on ALL of the grout lines on the whole floor. I thought it was going to take forever on such a huge floor. But it didn’t! I went in there right before bedtime, and doing the whole floor (again, about 49 square feet of tiny tiles with lots of grout lines) took about 30 minutes. And I put it on every single grout line on the shower floor.
And when I got up yesterday morning to get ready for church, it took me just a few minutes to wash it all away before taking my shower, and this floor now looks just as good as it did the day I finished grouting the tile.
Here’s a picture I took back in 2022 right after I finished the shower tile…
And here’s what it looks like this morning…
And best of all…NO SCRUBBING NEEDED!! It did all the hard work for me while I slept.
I mean, does this look like 2.5-year-old white grout on a shower floor that has been used regularly? It almost looks whiter and brighter now than it did when it was new. 😀
Of course, looking at those pictures, I realize I should have used some on the vertical grout lines at the bottom on the drain wall. That grout is looking a bit soap scummy as well. And since it’s a clinging product (made for toilet bowls), I’m pretty sure it’ll work there as well. I’m going to try it. But I did put it on the grout on that wall where the wall meets the floor, and it brought that back to bright white as well.
Anyway, I’ll never scrub this grout again. Of course, I’ll also be putting those shower curtains back up ASAP so that that low spot doesn’t catch water. But I’ll be doing this at least yearly from now on. Forty minutes of time and less than $6 for a two-pack of Clorox Clinging Bleach Gel…and NO SCRUBBING…once a year is a small price to pay for keeping white shower grout bright white.
Note: If you decide to try this, I suggest testing it out first in a small, inconspicuous place first before jumping in and doing the whole floor. And never use bleach on dark grout or natural stone!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
