Baking Soda & Vinegar

I am always on the lookout for natural cleaning products.  If I can make it in my home with what I have on hand, that's even better.

We just bought a house a few months ago and it was vacant for probably a year before we bought it.  To put it nicely, the house hadn't been taken care of properly in a very long time.  We should have asked for the sellers to pay for it to be cleaned before we moved in, but we didn't.  Ew.  Bad mistake.

Anywho, the grout in the master bathroom always looked dingy and dirty even after I mopped the floor.  I got it in my head that I was going to try to clean the grout yesterday.  I popped the girls in the bathtub and got on the internet to see what I could find to clean grout.  Everything I find is bleach and baking soda.  Blech.  I don't want to use bleach.  I keep searching for an alternative and find vinegar can be used instead of bleach!  Hurray!  I grab some vinegar and baking soda from the kitchen and off I go.

These pictures aren't the best but the vinegar an baking soda solution works wonders!!  The left side has already been scrubbed.  What a difference!

I used an old tooth brush and made a paste with the vinegar/baking soda.  When I was done, (it took me a good 40 minutes to do) I took a very wet hand towel and wiped the whole floor down.  I love walking in my bathroom and seeing that clean floor now!

 After the girls went to bed I thought, I wonder if that magic solution will help with the kitchen grout.  I HATE our kitchen floors.  I mop/clean them and they still look dirty.  So nasty.  Well, I grabbed my magic solution and did one square of the tile and let it dry.  These tiles are terra-cotta and are very absorbant if not sealed every year.  Of course the previous owners didn't do that so anytime we drop any liquid on the floor and don't immediately wipe it up, the spot gets absorbed into the tile and looks like a stain.  Fabulous floor for a kitchen right?  Boo!

Well, I didn't think it worked very well as I was doing it.  But once it dried...what a difference!!  I guess I better stock up on vinegar and baking soda....