Add this to the list of uses for shaving cream: Use it as a helper when cleaning mildew from grout. The thick consistency of shaving cream (not gel) helps keep bleach on mildew-y tile joints long enough to fight the mildew...
Combine equal parts shaving cream and bleach and apply it along the grout lines in your shower. The shaving cream will provide the thickening needed for the bleach to sit vertically on the grout overnight. Rinse in the morning and the mildew should be gone. We only suggest this for white grout, however, as bleach could discolor dark or colored grouts.
For five more shaving cream uses (including cleaning carpet stains as Gregory's clued us in on in the past), see our photo's source: Reader's Digest.
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Comments (7)
Would this work for mold on a ceiling?
i'll have to try this out as my grout is not pretty and while I've gotten it better, it's never trully clean.
Hi everyone. I have done quite a bit of research on mold removal. I live in a basement apartment with tile flooring which has no insulating layer underneath. I keep my windows open and did not operate the a/c all summer. When it gets warm, the floors sweat: bad news for my rugs.
I have an 8 x 10 CB2 rug that had a very fair amount of mold on the bottom of it. No one wanted to clean it, and I knew bleach would destroy it because it has some very bright reds and oranges. I did some research online, and white vinegar was the cure.
I put pure white vinegar in a spray bottle and hosed the bottom of the rug every morning before I left for work. Granted, it did not smell nice, but it killed every bit of the mold, and my rug was saved.
Do not use bleach on any non-porous surface, i.e. grout, to kill mold. Approximately 95-98% of bleach quickly breaks down into water and salt (WebMd). All the chlorine bleaches the color out of the mold, while the mold feeds on the water. End result is mold.
Use white vinegar with a few drops of an essential oil in a spray bottle to clean porous surfaces such as grout. It will kill the mold and it is MUCH better for the environment.
Hope this helps!
graham21 is correct. Using bleach in showers is completely useless. It does not actually kill it.
I suggest adding a few drops of tea tree oil to that white vinegar.
And what about shaving cream and white vinegar together?
Thanks to everyone for your ideas, mold is the enemy!
Put the white vinegar and your choice of aromatic (lemon oil, tea tree oil, lavender oil, etc) into a spray bottle and mist onto the affected surface. Once it is clean, all it will take is regular misting to keep it clean.
Heavy mold should be brushed off first and disposed of. The remaining should be sprayed over and over until gone.
Use a bottle in the shower as regular maintenance and you'll never have to scrub the grout again! Also, keep in mind that vinegar will not stain or color bleach anything like bleach will!
I got rid of mold on the ceiling in one of my old apartments using ammonia, then borax. I used one of those old-style sponge mops with ammonia & water to wipe the existing mold off the ceiling, then I changed the water and mixed borax to beyond the saturation point in scalding hot water and mopped that onto the dry ceiling. You end up with some undissolved borax crystals on the ceiling, but I figured that looked better than mold.
Anyhow, the mold never came back - not even a speck of it. It can't grow on borax. The paint seemed no worse for the wear, but it was high-gloss.