A Lazy Person’s Guide to Cleaning Mini Blinds
WHAT DOESN’T WORK:
I have a sun room in my house with several windows containing mini blinds that have been severely neglected. I wasn’t too keen on taking my blinds down and dunking them in ammonia solution, as many people have suggested on the internet. I was even less likely to take my blinds outside and hose them off in the driveway. After an unsuccessful attempt to clean my blinds by vacuuming each slat using a crevice attachment, I purchased a container of blind wipes for $6.99 online. The blind wipes claimed to be pre-treated to remove dust, dirt, & grease instantly. Again, I was trying to take the easy way out. The blind wipes arrived on my doorstep a week later, looking and smelling suspiciously like Clorox disinfecting wipes, except much smaller and thinner.
I already felt like I’d been suckered. Then I tried to clean my dusty mini-blinds following the directions on the back of the container: “wipe slats with a sweeping motion”. After a couple “sweeping motions” I noticed that the moisture from the blind wipes was causing the dust to form into dark streaks and the more I grabbed the blinds to hold them firm while I was wiping, the more dark finger prints appeared on my white blinds! The harder I wiped, the more moisture would squeeze out of the blind wipes causing little dark drips that dried pretty quickly on the blinds. A quick comparison between the “cleaned” blinds and the blinds that I hadn’t yet touched revealed that I had made a big mistake in purchasing the blind wipes. The blinds were now noticeably MORE grimy, with streaks, finger prints and dark drip marks. By this time I had used 6 blind wipes on one set of blinds and the situation was not improving. It was time to admit my mistake and look for a new solution.
WHAT WORKS:
My husband had once mentioned that his mom always used old socks for dusting and cleaning, however; I was not too keen on putting my husband’s old socks (clean or not) on my hand. So I looked through all my dusting supplies and pulled out a Swiffer dry sweeping cloth. I used the same sweeping motion on my closed blinds as I did with the blind wipes, but this time, the dust came right off with little effort. I turned the cloth over to the clean side and went back and forth along the slats to make sure I didn’t miss any spots. No more dust! If your blinds are really dusty, you might need to use a few Swiffer cloths before they look clean. Then, to make my life easier the next time around, I grabbed a dryer sheet (which purportedly repels dust) and wiped my blinds quickly with it. My blinds look a lot cleaner now and I am happy knowing that the majority of dust has been removed. However, if your blinds are exceptionally dirty (that is, if they have already changed color from years of buildup) you might need to employ the bathtub dunking method or use the hose on them outside. You could also have them professionally cleaned or consider replacing them – mini blinds are quite inexpensive!
Well, sometimes my laziness pays off and sometimes it doesn’t. But I hope that in sharing my adventures in mini blind cleaning, I’ve prevented you from wasting your money on a quick fix, namely blind wipes, and have encouraged you to be resourceful when it comes to blind cleaning, employing household cleaning products that you already have!
