by Frances Stanford

Created on: July 10, 2010

Vertical blinds add to the décor of any room in addition to blocking out the sun and providing privacy. Along with all the other features of your home, they need to be cleaned on a regular basis. However, this cleaning task is more time consuming than dusting and cleaning the floors. In fact many homeowners forget about cleaning window blinds until they notice a buildup of dust and dirt.

If you have plastic blinds, along with your arsenal of cleaning tools, you need to have a duster that will fit in the slats. In this way all you have to do is wipe off each slat when you dust the furniture in each room. Taking more time to wipe the slats with a damp cloth from time to time will keep the dust from accumulating. Just as there is spray to make dusting furniture an easier task, there are also enzyme sprays you can buy that will loosen the dust from hard to reach areas.

Fabric blinds are a bit harder to clean. You can vacuum them using an attachment on the vacuum cleaner. In most cases, you do have to remove the blinds from the window and lay the slats flat on the floor. This will ensure that you do give the blinds a good cleaning instead of just a wipe over. The material can also be washed by soaking or scrubbing to remove any stains you might find. However, you should not use bleach because this will take out the color from the material.

Professional carpet cleaners are great for cleaning fabric vertical blinds. If you happen to get paint splatters on vinyl blinds when redecorating a glass cleaner such as Windex will easily remove them. Ink marks on vinyl blinds will come off when you dab them with rubbing alcohol. You do have to be careful to gently dab out the stain rather than rub the alcohol onto the slat that is stained.

Vinegar is a very useful household cleaner and works well for cleaning windows as well as the blinds. Mix the vinegar with water and use this as your cleaning solution. Not only will you remove the dust and dirt, but you will leave the blinds smelling clean and fresh. Just make sure you rinse off the solution with clear water and dry the blinds thoroughly to avoid having wet blinds at your window that may drip water onto your floor.

Overall, cleaning vertical blinds is not as laborious a task as it may seem to be when you start. As you make it part of your daily cleaning routine, it will become second nature to you.

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