I absolutely love magic erasers. Melamine sponges. Whatever you want to call them. They are THE most versatile cleaning tool out there, from wall touch up to cabinet clean up to shower scum scraping…they cannot be beat, especially for the price. Best part? No harsh chemicals! You just wet them, wring them out, and scrub away at whatever you’re trying to brighten up. Regardless of my love for these things, it had never occurred to me, in my entire 15 years of homeownership, to use them on tile grout until just recently.
Let’s actually rewind to the fall of last year (2023). My pregnancy with my daughter was nearing its end, and I was in full nesting mode. One morning, I glanced around our master bathroom (one of only two tiled areas in our home), and I instantly became DISGUSTED with our tile grout. Yuck! It was not necessarily dirty since I do regularly Swiffer WetJet and clean the tile, but it was discolored and certainly not “clean”. We considered hiring this project out since we do have a friend with a professional tile cleaning business, but time got away from us, then we had a newborn along with our toddler, then it was Christmas and…well. You get the picture.
In the meantime, we casually tried to steam clean some of the grout in small, inconspicuous areas. We used grout brushes with baking soda paste. We tried Dawn degreaser. Nothing really did the job…which was a tough one since the original grout (and that on our nearby shower walls!) was a very light grey color to begin with. Frustrated, I gave the project a rest for awhile.
Fast forward to the summer, and I was over it. I tried the baking soda paste again, but that barely did anything, other than leaving a nasty, powdery mess. I took a break and glanced around the bathroom, my eyes finally resting on the box of magic erasers I had left on the counter after cleaning the shower…whoa. Could they work? I was genuinely curious, so I went for it. And…LOW AND BEHOLD…THEY CLEANED THE GROUT BEAUTIFULLY.
Y’all, I am SO IMPRESSED with how well these cheap little sponges cleaned our nasty tile grout in about one hour of combined work. Granted, we do not have a full main living area full of tile or anything, but it wasn’t a super small job, AND it was easy. Tile grout tends to eat away at melamine sponges pretty rapidly, so I did end up going through several boxes of erasers…and I had to watch my fingers for scrapes as the erasers wore down…but overall, AMAZING results, and both of my tiled bathrooms look fantastic. And, at $3.29 per box for six erasers (Target, obviously) and a little water (no harsh chemicals, no smells, nothing crazy)…this may be the most perfect cleaning hack.
I am going to post the video below for you guys to watch and let me know what you think. Is this something that could work for your house? Have people been doing this forever? Let me know!
