How to Clean Blinds

Discover how to clean blinds without raising billowing clouds of dust that make you sneeze and bring on allergies in your kids or pets.

Keeping the house clean is important, but if we replace the dust and dirt in the air with toxic chemical fumes then we’re actually worse off than before. Many household cleaners contain toxic ingredients that are at best bad for us and at worst are cancer-causing, so that advertised promise of quick and easy powerful sanitizing comes at a cost that most of us would prefer not pay.

Luckily there are several easy green ways to deal with blinds that use no chemical cleaning products at all but are very effective.

Learn how to clean blinds the natural way with the following easy methods:

• Use your vacuum cleaner. If you just go over your blinds every week when you are doing the rest of your vacuuming you will keep the dust down and they will need far less serious cleaning later. Close the slats and, using the soft brush attachment, go over the blinds. Switch the slats over to the other side and vacuum once more. This quick process will avoid the dust build up that can make blinds so hard to clean.
• Vinegar and socks. White spirit vinegar is the natural all-purpose cleaner in the house. It loosens grime and kills germs, leaving your home fresh (if a little vinegary! Don’t worry the smell disappears entirely as it dries.) This method collects all the dust and grime onto the sock so won’t put clouds of dust out into the room. Use any old cotton socks for this job – it’s worth keeping holey socks just for this. Put your hand into the sock, dip your fingers into some neat white vinegar (or diluted half and half with water), squeeze out the excess and then simply run your fingers in the sock along each of the slats of your blind. All the grime will come off onto the sock. Rinse the sock and dip again into the vinegar as you go. If there are grease spots or dirty marks on the blind then just rub a bit harder and it should come off.
• For seriously greasy and grimy blinds, you might just have to take them down to clean them. Vacuum them first to get rid of loose dust and dirt. Put a few inches of warm water in the bath tub with some mild dish soap and lay the blind in the water. Let them soak for half and hour then gently rub each slat to get rid of grime. Never soak wooden blinds however, as they are likely to warp.

When you know how to clean blinds the easy, green way it becomes far less of a chore and you can keep the dust in check at the same time as reducing the amount of chemical pollutants in your home and keeping the air cleaner for your family to breathe.

Thanks for visiting!

Happy cleaning!