The $13 Tool That Finally Got My Kitchen Looking Clean Again

I love my kitchen. For a New York City apartment, I know I lucked out — stainless steel appliances, a dishwasher, and plenty of cabinet space. And as a native Brooklynite who grew up in a home that was more than 100 years old with a galley-style kitchen, I’m especially grateful! There is, however, one thing that really bugs me about my kitchen: the grout.

I cook often and am religious about wiping down my surfaces after intense sessions of meal prepping. Recently, though, I noticed that my hurried wipes with a dampened rag were no longer cutting it. The grout lines had yellowed with grease and grime, and it was skeeving me out. Plus, I felt a slight twinge of shame — my Latina ancestors were probably rolling in their graves, knowing how filthy I’d let my tiles get.

I knew it was time to give them a proper cleaning, so I turned to Amazon and its ever-reliable rating system to pick out the gadget that would restore my kitchen.

After some digging, I found the one: the Fuginator Scrub Brush. It even sounded diabolical! With more than 480 reviews and 4.5 stars, things looked promising. The design was intriguing, too; the L-shaped line of bristles is brilliant for pesky corners. Willing to try anything to make my kitchen cleanup speedy, I figured $13 was an insignificant amount of money to spend if the product was a dud.

Confession: I was eager to play with my new tool when it arrived, but when I looked at my tiles, I felt overwhelmed so I chucked it aside, choosing to ignore the festering mess for a week and a half.

Finally I sucked it up (because, adulting), and commenced the cleaning. I sprayed a general multi-surface solution onto my backsplash, let it sit for a few minutes, then began to scrub. The first thing I noticed was how comfortable the scrubber is to hold — the ergonomic handle felt very natural in my hand, and I didn’t have to apply too much pressure. The line of nylon bristles was long enough to cover plenty of ground, but not so long that I felt out of control. After one smooth, quick swipe, as if I was sliding my credit card over my stove, I stepped back to assess the situation. Almost two years’ worth of gunk disappeared in a matter of seconds, revealing a sparkling white grout line.

In my excitement, I erased the rest of the grime from my backsplash, and my entire kitchen was done in less than half an hour. I think the magic is in the nylon bristles — they’re pretty stiff, which helps to strip away caked-on crud. Plus, because the bristles form an L shape, I was able to maneuver my way into corner tiles. I know there are other grout brushes on the market (I did the research!), but this one seems to be the only one that’s actually designed with, well, cleaning grout in mind. The results were incredible.

It worked so well, in fact, that I went on to scrub down my bathroom, which is something I normally dread doing and usually just delegate to my husband. I couldn’t believe that I waited a week and a half to give this thing a try. Now that I have a solution for this quirky pet peeve, I almost look forward to my next deep-cleaning session. Almost.