Keeping Blinds Dust Free

A great chore for spring or fall cleaning is a thorough, deep clean of your blinds! Sometimes, the best cleaning routines can be spruced up with a good cleaning of the blinds. It’s a good idea to keep them dusted, or at the very least, to deep clean them twice a year!

Cleaning the blinds entails either a thorough dusting or a very detailed, deep clean of each individual blind. Either way, a thoughtful cleaning cuts down the amount of dust lingering in the air. Horizontal blinds are a natural dust trap, and after a while the dust settled on them sticks to the blinds and can be hard to pull off with a duster. In those cases, a simple, quick dusting isn’t enough.

Dusting Techniques

In some cases, your blinds only need a firm dusting. Examine each set of blinds to decide if they should be hand wiped or dusted. If the dust is incredibly loose, then they only need to be dusted; but if the dust is stubborn and clings to the surface of the blinds, they will need to be hand wiped.

A dusting tool with a long body (such as a lamb’s wool duster) is perfect for pulling dust off of horizontal blinds. Holding your duster straight up, lay it onto the top most blind with gentle pressure, and then firmly run the duster across the surface of the blind to pull up the dust. Next, holding the duster horizontally, lay the duster against the blinds near the top, and pull the duster down to the bottom. Begin on one side of the blinds, and work your way across, dusting in sections. Continue dusting in sections until you have finished the entire surface of the blinds.

Hand Wiping Techniques

It’s fairly common for blinds to need an actual wipe down to get all of the dust off. Sun and heat can bake the dust onto the blinds, making it necessary to wipe each blind individually to get all of the dust up. If your blinds need a cleaning this intensive, you will need the following:

• clean rags
• cleaner
• step ladder (depending on the height of the blinds)

Gather your supplies, and go to the first set of blinds you intend to clean. Begin with the top most blind, and step up onto your step ladder if you cannot reach the highest point of the blinds. Taking your cleaner, spray the blinds with just enough of the solution to help loosen the dust from the surface of the blinds. Next, take your rag and begin to work up the dust from the surface from the topmost blind, and clean from one side of the blind to the other. After you have finished one blind, begin cleaning the next, just below the one you have just cleaned. Gradually work your way down, wiping each individual blind as you go. Take care not to push down on the blinds too much so that you don’t pull them all down.

While hand wiping blinds is time consuming work, it is the most efficient and detailed way to help keep your home cleaner than ever!