Cleaning Your Tile Floors with White Vinegar

Dal, Portobello, Mohawk, American Olean; bisque, biscuit, bianco, bone; 6×6, 12×12, 16×16. All makes, colors and sizes of tile require some sort of upkeep on a constant basis. So what’s the best way to care for your top notch investment and still be environmentally friendly? Watch enough daytime television and you’ll see advertised every product under the sun on how to clean your home from top to bottom. But not every spray, powder or gel works and when the economy is at its lowest, who has the money to buy a cleaner only to find it’s not doing the job?

So many chemicals go into big name brands to maximize the power and supposedly minimize the work. A cap full of concentrate into a bucket of hot water makes your bottle of magic cleaner seem to work wonders, but it leaves your tile floor feeling tacky. The way to make it less sticky? Clean out your entire bucket, wash the mop head thoroughly and re-mop the floor with a fresh bucket of hot water. Who’s got time for that and what a waste!

But maybe you’ve found that wonderful bottle of floor cleaner that leaves your tile sparkling and smelling fresh, but now you’ve only accomplished cleaning one of many surfaces in the house and that liquid you just used on your floor would make a toxic cocktail addition when added to your cooking surfaces. So now you need to buy another product.

Instead, you should try white vinegar. Used not only for cooking, that bottle of grains and water in your fridge (or under your sink) can work wonders sterilizing your floors and work space! Just add two cap fulls to a gallon of hot water and mop away. You’ll be amazed at the difference if you’ve ever used those pine-scented or bald-headed brands and were left disappointed. White vinegar leaves the floor feeling smooth, clean and like it’s brand new. The smell may not be pleasant, but it beats killing brain cells with other household cleaners that use other highly flammable, toxic chemicals.

But white vinegar isn’t only for the floors! Soak a rag with vinegar and run it over all tile surfaces in the house. In the kitchen – backsplashes and counters; the bathroom – interior shower walls and even your grout lines. White vinegar’s acidity is so high, it breaks down scum, mold and other bacteria that other cleaners tend to just cover up with a pleasing smell.

White vinegar is not by any means hard to use. Very little scrubbing is required, especially in cleaning tile surfaces. Because tile is fired and does not absorb stains, everything is on the surface and waiting to be wiped up by the right cleaner. Even difficult stains left by sitting garbage can be removed by hand and cleansing grout lines anywhere is a cinch with a little bit of white vinegar by your side.

Give it a try! White vinegar is the key to a happy clean home and you can rest assured that things are sanitized, fresh and safe for you, your family, and even your pets.