Dirty Little Secrets…

I realized something last Friday while home all day with a sick kid.

There are only so many excuses you can come up with for not cleaning your bathrooms. My go-to lately has been the classic “I’m just way too busy to properly deep clean this bathroom so let’s just all make a pact to never turn the lights on in here, ok?”

I snuggled with my girl on the couch for awhile, checked email, finished a blog post, checked Facebook, tossed in a load of laundry, checked Facebook, snuggled some more, watched Blues Clues, checked email, tossed in another load of laundry, checked Facebook, glanced at the clock and realized it was only 10 a.m. I guess since I had been up since 5 a.m. with my vomiting daughter I felt like half the day should be gone by this point but, alas, it was still morning and I had no more excuses. I had to clean the bathrooms!

And if I was going to clean them, then I was going to really CLEAN them. I was committed by this point. All or nothing baby! As I wiped down the counters I realized that even though I knew in my mind I was cleaning them, my eyes said something different. The culprit? Dirty, dingy grout lines!

So one quick Pinterest search later and my counters went from this…

To THIS!

And all it took were two ingredients and some elbow grease. Or finger grease. Is that a thing?

Simply pour baking soda into a bowl and slowly add hydrogen peroxide until you have the consistency of paste. Spread it over the grout lines and press it in while you’re spreading. Then leave it for awhile. Say….long enough to take care of your vomiting child, toss in another load of laundry from said vomiting child, decide to switch around some furniture and accessories, snuggle with aforementioned child, watch Lalaloopsy, remake bed of vomiting child and…well…you get the idea.

Then using warm water and a cloth simply wipe down the counters being sure to scrub the grout lines as you work. You will see the grime just lift right off!

I was so excited about how well this worked that I decided to put it to the ultimate test.

THE BATHROOM USED BY A BOY!!!  

If you are squeamish you should just go ahead and turn away now because this isn’t pretty folks. This is what happens when you mix boys and white tile with white grout lines. Especially when that boy likes to see how closely he can “aim” towards the side of the toilet without going over. Yep.

I left the paste on even longer for this one and really held little hope that it would actually work. I might have even started thinking about how I could just paint the grout lines yellow and never have to worry about this again.

But after a bit of scrubbing the grout went from this…(told ya it wasn’t pretty and if I wasn’t so excited about the results I might be too ashamed to even show this to you!)

To THIS! And then I might have passed out for a bit from amazement.

 Someday I would love to have non-tiled counters. I think a beautiful white marble would be so pretty in our master bathroom, don’t you?

But, we need to paint our house this summer. And my cooktop only has one burner that works at a time. And we need to repair/refinish the floors in our kitchen. And…well…new counters are so far down the line that they aren’t even on the back burner!

 So, until they get there, I will just be content with my fresh, looks-good-as-new, white tiled counter.

And tell my son that the next time he decides he wants to see how close he can get to the edge of the toilet without going over he will have to be the one to clean the grout!

Can I get an AMEN? 😉

Speaking of that boy…today he turns 10. Double digits! He keeps asking me why I tear up when we talk about this milestone and I tell him they are happy tears because I’m so grateful that I get to be his mommy. And that is true, of course! But, inside I know that they are also bittersweet tears because I blinked and he went from that little boy doing itsy-bitsy-spider in the photo on the left to the big boy in the photo on the right who is growing into an incredible young “man”. And isn’t that the best dimple ever? I always tell him, “YOU are the one who made all my dreams come true and made me a mommy!” He is hilarious, tender-hearted, curious about EVERYTHING, inquisitive, his favorite word is “interesting”, he is a wonderful friend, an even more wonderful big brother and, along with his sister, the light of our lives. Happy Birthday sweet boy of mine! Being your mommy is the greatest joy and privilege in my life and 10 years ago today every hope, dream, prayer, longing and heart’s desire came to fulfillment when God gave us YOU!

Thanks so much for meeting me At the Picket Fence today,

P.S. If you don’t have white grout lines and are worried that this might change the color, test on an inconspicuous area first before using. Other alternative solutions are using baking soda and vinegar or even just lemon juice to clean the grout lines! 

Looking for more awesome tips like this? Visit Ask Anna where you will find tons of ways to clean and organize your home! Check out these other ways to use Hydrogen Peroxide in cleaning your home: