The Easiest No-Scrub Way To Clean White Grout In A Shower
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.
Bleach is terrible for grout. It will degrade it over time.
If used every week, I can see that. Once a year? I don’t think so. But I’ll update y’all in five years or so. 😀
Regarding the comment about bleach causing the grout to deteriorate. I have white tile counter tops with white grout in my kitchen. I have cleaned them by flooding them with liquid bleach that I allow to soak for an hour before rinsing off. I have done this weekly for over a decade and my grout is just fine.
Pools and spas use chlorine to keep the water free of contaminates. The grout does not appear to be harmed in any way.
THIS is a lifesaver. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
Thank you for sharing this! I have marble shower walls and floor in our primary bathroom so unfortunately I can’t use bleach or any harsh chemicals on it. After 25 years it’s looking really bad. We are going to remodel the bathroom and I’m considering porcelain tile. If anyone has thoughts on that, please share!
That’s the very reason I went with porcelain over a natural stone for our shower. I originally wanted marble, but people warned me that it was very difficult to clean in a shower, and you can’t use a lot of cleaners on it. I love marble, but it’s porous and it etches. I’d always choose porcelain over marble in a shower.
The best way I’ve found to clean grout on my marble shower walls and floors is the pressure washer. We are lucky that our shower is a large walk-in and is enclosed, so it doesn’t make a huge mess in the bathroom. We do it 2-3 times a year and it works amazingly!
What a cool idea! I’m going to have to try this!
What a good find!
Using a squeegee with the cleaner, as applying grout the first time, helps speed things along.
Did you seal your grout after installation?
No. I used a grout that didn’t require sealing.
I bought a box of brushes/scrub pads off Amazon for around 20$ that attach to my drill. The smooth buff pad and barkeepers friend took off my hardwater stains in a low spot. I have a fiber type surround so no grout to try it on. I’ve tried EVERYTHING as well. It even removed hardwater rings from the toilets. No more scrubbing!!!!!
Thanks for the great tip!!!!
Looks great! Be careful not to get it on any metal drain covers, it will eat away at it. Please don’t ask me how I know this. 🫣
one more thing that has helped me keep our shower looking nice for about 3 years now is a squeegee – after we shower we each squeegee the walls and floor to get the standing water etc off (I bet you could use a long handled one and make quick work of yours). It is now habit and I believe it has made a big difference. The other thing that has seemed to help is using liquid soap instead of bar soap. I despise being on my hands and knees to clean grout, so anything I can do to make that easier is fantastic in my book!
I agree. Liquid soap really eliminates the soap scum! Started using it 10-15 years ago and it’s fantastic for keeping walls, etc. clean.
We are faithful squeegee uses as well. We also dry the floor and horizontal surfaces with a towel to keep the moisture as low as possible.
A great idea and here’s a tip. Transfer the gel to a condiment squeeze bottle. It’s easier to squeeze and the tip is smaller for smaller grout lines.
This does work great, but I hope no one does what I did. I used it on the grout on my shower walls… it worked great, but dripped down onto my tub. The tub now has bleach stains. D’oh!
Another good suggestion that has worked very well for me is Tilex. Just spray it on, let it sit a little while, then spray off. You might give it a try!
I had great results using Krud Kutter to clean the grout in our house when we moved in – the greasy dirt that it removed was truly disturbing!
That stuff is amazing. We use it on our boat, every spring to clean up all of the mold and mildew. It truly is magic.
That’s awesome! I wonder if it would work on my fiberglass shower? I’m getting ready to replace my “slip strips” on the floor, and I know about cleaning it with alcohol, but if this will work just as well, why not try? I would still follow with alcohol, but I bet this would take off the leftover sticky stuff from the old strips! I’ll do a test first, but I’m betting it will work! Thanks for the idea!!!
When we had bathroom floors re-done, I asked for a cream to light beige tinted grout. It matched the background color of the tile, but is darker than the cream color I wanted. It has continued to look dingy, in spite of yearly sealing grout. And the color never looks as clean as another tiled room that has white grout. I have used several products, Pink paste helps, but still disappointing. I plan to try your suggestion, but how has the grout renew product held up in your mom’s kitchen?
It has held up great!
YES YES YES!!! This is exactly what I use (and have been using for years) to clean all of our super hard water scum! For showers and tubs, I squirt some in and then use the broom to spread it everywhere and in all the cracks and crevices. I finish with a spotless shower and a clean broom. Double win, no sweat. 😁
I tried this over the weekend. AMAZING. My grout looks like new.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I can finally stop searching “cleaning grout” posts. No more getting on my hands and knees scrubbing my very large, very white tile shower floor with minimal success. For less than $3 a bottle (and 1 hour wait time) I now have what looks like a brand new shower. You’re awesome 😊