How to Clean Vertical Blinds While They're Hanging Up
Vertical blinds are a practical alternative to curtains. Blinds allow more control over how much light filters into the room, and how much privacy the room has. Keeping blinds clean is usually easy, if you remember to dust them regularly. If you get busy and forget to do this, grime will accumulate on the blinds and you will have to give them a pretty thorough cleaning. Although this is more time-consuming than dusting, it isn't difficult and, in most cases, you can do it without taking the blinds down. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Place a towel (or a dropcloth) on the floor beneath the blinds. This will protect your floor from the dirt and soapy water.
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Dust blinds with a microfiber or feather duster. Start at the top of the blinds -- dust from top to bottom. Much of the grime on vertical blinds comes from dust in the air and will come off this way.
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Fill one bucket with clean rinse water and one bucket with warm, soapy water (add just 1 tbsp. of dish detergent) if the blinds are vinyl, bamboo or a similar hard material. If your vertical blinds are fabric, simply vacuum them with a hose attachment on a vacuum cleaner.
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Wet a sponge in the bucket of soap and water. Hold one section of the blinds steady and wipe it down. Move to the next section until you've wiped off the entire set.
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Wet another sponge in the rinse bucket and wipe down the blinds again to remove soapy water. Use a clean towel to dry them off.
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Tips & Warnings
Dust blinds weekly to prevent dust buildup -- you'll be able to go longer between heavier cleaning if you do this.
Use wet wash cloths or towels as an alternatives to sponges.
If you are in a hurry, use two sponges at once- - hold one on one side of a slat and the other sponge on the other side. Slide the sponges down together to wash both sides of the slat at the same time.
Hold the blinds steady as you clean them, but do not squeeze or bend them -- this may leave permanent creases.
