The Household Essential That'll Bring Your Grimy Tile Floors Back To Life

Tile floors might be easy to clean thanks to their durable surface, but sometimes they require a deeper scrubbing. For moments like those, you can use rubbing alcohol rather than dish soap or your regular floor cleaner. It's a great substitute to reach for when you notice your tiles becoming extra grimy. Maybe your bathroom floors are beginning to show signs of mildew, or perhaps your entryway tiles have stuck-on grime left behind from outdoor shoes. Perhaps your grout is starting to discolor in the kitchen due to food splatters or wayward grease stains, or maybe there was a bathroom accident on the floor, and you need something to disinfect it. Whatever the issue, rubbing alcohol can help reverse it.

That's because rubbing alcohol achieves the same thing bleach would but is much safer for your flooring. Bleach is one of those chemicals you should avoid using on tile floors since it can corrode the surface and discolor the grout coloring. It's much too abrasive and can cause more harm than good. Instead, achieve the same goal with rubbing alcohol. Here's how.

To create a rubbing alcohol floor cleaner, you will need several ingredients. Grab a gallon bucket and mix warm water with 1¼ cups of rubbing alcohol, 2½ cups of vinegar, and a squirt of dish soap. Mix the ingredients together, and use your mop to clean and disinfect your tile floors. Not only will you be left with deep-cleaned floors, but you will also be left with a streak-free finish since rubbing alcohol evaporates quickly, leaving no residue. You can also use it to clean grout, specifically. Mix a 1:1 ratio of rubbing alcohol and water in a spray bottle and use it to saturate dirty grout lines. Let it sit for 10 minutes, and then wipe the dirt away, lifting stains. Using these methods will help you keep your floors cleaner for longer.

Rubbing alcohol is an effective floor cleaner for several reasons. First, it kills most bacteria, viruses, and fungi, so it's an excellent disinfectant to use on grimy tile floors. Second, rubbing alcohol is a solvent, which means it naturally breaks down oil and grease, dissolving it into smaller particles and allowing soap to whisk it away more easily. That's why it's a valuable part of a floor cleaning solution. Because it's a powerful solvent, it can also lift difficult stains from grout lines, such as protein, tannin, and dye-based stains.