Cleaningfilter

July 4, 2023 9:03 PM

I hate cleaning my baseboards and my grout, so I never do it. They’re gross. Help me fix it!

What are your best tips and systems for:

1) cleaning painted baseboards

2) cleaning grout

I don’t mind making it a little bit of a project this time if the end result is great, and I don’t mind buying something new to help. Chemicals are fine- just tell me what you, from lived experience, know will work well. I have your standard Target/Walmart cleaning aisles at my disposal.

posted by charmedimsure to Home & Garden (14 answers total)

For grout the best thing I’ve found is an old toothbrush and a baking soda/water paste. That’s fairly labour intensive though, so I got a small brush attachment for my electric drill, which does make it a bit easier. Honestly though there’s got to be some sort of grout sealant which is easier to clean.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:37 PM on July 4, 2023

KABOOM!

Seriously. I've cleaned some filthy, filthy showers and tiled walls for people that had moved out of really grody apartments. Spray on, walk away. Ten minutes later, rinse, repeat. You may want to do a third time if it's really bad, then scrub with a brush or just wipe down. After that, use Kaboom about once a week. Spray, let set, rinse. I haven't cleaned my grout or tile in my bathroom in six years, and it looks like new.
posted by BlueHorse at 10:17 PM on July 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

Magic eraser but you have to scrub.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:23 PM on July 4, 2023

I’ve cleaned baseboards with a small bowl of water with a tiny bit of whatever you normally use to mop (Mr Clean, Fabuloso, dish soap would probably work) and a rag/small dishcloth/etc. You just dip, wring, wipe and repeat, working your way around the room. It’s pretty tedious but it’s not really hard unless your baseboards are more than just normally dusty/grimy.
posted by MadamM at 10:35 PM on July 4, 2023

I have a set of brushes and scrubbing pads that attach to a cordless drill. I use them to clean larger areas of grout, especially the tiled floor in one of my bathrooms. They take away most of the physical chore of cleaning things.
posted by pipeski at 2:50 AM on July 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Use a *grout* brush!
posted by jgirl at 3:05 AM on July 5, 2023

For grout there is one answer which is very satisfying but which definitely counts as using a nuclear bomb on an anthill. You buy Clorox Clinging Bleach Gel toilet cleaner and you use the little toilet bowl nozzle applicator to lay lines of gel over the grout lines. Then wait 30 minutes. Then wipe off with warm water; you may need to rinse twice. Your grout will *sparkle* and you will feel like a goddamn wizard snapping his fingers. I have heard that this heavy-duty so-many-harsh-chemicals treatment is bad for grout long term and can cause it to break down over time, but I do it once a year to our white kitchen floor with white grout and over at least 5-6 years have seen no ill effects.
posted by shadygrove at 6:14 AM on July 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

For baseboards in my bathroom with annoying amounts of caked on dust, I've tried washing them with cloths to poor results. What has been both the most effective and by far the easiest has been vacuuming them using the brush attachment. It doesn't solve scuffs, but they look impressively clean otherwise.
posted by past unusual at 7:49 AM on July 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

However you clean the baseboards, finish with a dryer sheet to repel dust.
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:03 PM on July 5, 2023

Power scrubber. Rubber Maid makes what's essentially a XL sized electric toothbrush for cleaning grout. :D But If you don't want to kneel I recommend you get the Tilswall spinning cordless grout brush, or if you have Ryobi yard stuff around, Ryobi P4500 cordless telescoping scrubber.

I recommend using the Dollar Tree bathroom foam cleaning spray first. Spray until it turns color, then scrub.
posted by kschang at 10:20 PM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

If there is a cleaning chore that you particularly hate doing, why not hire a professional housecleaner to do it? They will already have the equipment and supplies.
posted by Jacqueline at 6:56 AM on July 6, 2023

Response by poster: Yeah- that’s not a service that is particularly available, affordable or reliable in my area at the moment, otherwise I would.
posted by charmedimsure at 11:48 AM on July 6, 2023

I hired someone to do a deep clean of my house. It was the biggest gift I could give myself. All of the sudden, I had zen. (It was not cheap, but not as expensive as I feared.)
posted by heathrowga at 5:23 AM on July 7, 2023

For baseboards, I just put on a glove and get going with a baby wipe. One long swipe to wet the dust (fold over the wipe every couple yards for a fresh surface). Then another wipe with a fresh baby wipe to remove the now-softened dust.

Also: I cannot over-state the joy of hiring someone to do tasks like this. Between age 10-19, I would have wept tears of joy if someone paid me $5-10 per room just to dust some baseboards!! I would have been absolutely meticulous and gladly even DRIED them after wiping.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 12:31 PM on July 10, 2023