Green Cleaning often means going back to the “good old days.” After all since Grandma was cleaning about the same time (or before) the extensive list of today’s chemicals were created, most of her solutions were without chemicals. So “If it was good for Grandma, it is good for me.” This logic disregards the science of cleaning and often time creates many of today’s cleaning myths.
Taking the clue from Aristotle who stated, “Art takes Nature as It’s Model”, green cleaning benefits from learning from nature.
Myth: The Harsher the Chemical the Cleaner the Floor Tile Grout
It is commonly accepted that the harshest cleaners are the best for cleaning the grout in floor tile. This is a myth, in fact doing so will degrade your tile must faster than its normal lifespan. As a result your long term costs (and headaches) will increase.
- Many will chose to use a combination of soaking with soapy water followed scrubbing bleach or another acid based cleaner in the grout with a stiff wire brush. The damage as a result may be hidden, but is extensive.
- Soapy water is tacky and will draw dirt like a magnet resulting in a bigger “mess” than what was started with.
- Bleach (a strong alkaline liquid) or an acid based cleaner are harsh and can emit harmful vapors causing a health hazard, as well as potentially harming other surfaces. Furthermore although the grout may “look good” in the short term, the strong pH will actually cause the grout to become brittle and erode thus deteriorating the grout much quicker.
Ultimately the process is not hard, but tedious and time-consuming. For a homemade cleaning solution, after removing as much dirt as possible with water, it is best use baking soda with a little bit of vinegar to clean the grout (which creates a pH neutral situation) or use a pH-neutral cleaning solution, such as EnviroCare Tough Job Cleaner provided in the CleansGreen® Degreaser & Cleaning Kit.
Note: Despite what “Grandma did”, grout that has not been sealed, or needs to be resealed, should not have vinegar on it. Vinegar can be bad as it is an acid and, as stated, over time will damage the grout whether sealed or not. The vinegar penetrates into the grout and weakens it.
Knowledge is one of those powerful cleaning tools. To learn more about other common cleaning myths, sign up for the eBook by Green Cleaning Products LLC, “The Bottom Line: Cleaning Myths Busted by CleansGreen®”.
There are so many myths in the cleaning world. To learn the science that is behind more of other cleaning myths, sign up for the eBook by Green Cleaning Products LLC, “The Bottom Line: Cleaning Myths Busted by CleansGreen®”.
Despite the myths that may be prevalent, CleansGreen® presents The Bottom Line: For things to be clean, and stay clean, more is not necessarily the answer. Get better results (and save money) by following the directions.
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