Keeping your windows and mirrors shiny
One of the most frustrating household tasks is cleaning your windows and your mirrors and keeping them shiny and streak-free. However, it is definitely possible to keep your windows and your mirrors shiny, as long as you clean them with the right cleaning products, along with a few surprising household products, such as newspaper.
Tips for keeping windows and mirrors shiny
|
|
- Don't clean when it's sunny outside.
Direct sunlight will dry your windows quickly, which will leave streaks. The best time to clean your windows is when it's cloudy outside, or in the evening when the sun won't ruin your work.
- Clean the window sills and the window frames.
Cleaning the sills and frames first means that if it rains when you're cleaning your windows on that overcast day, then dirt won't splash up onto your windows and ruin all of your efforts.
- Use a specially made window-washing squeegee that has a soft rubber edge.
- An alternative is to use a black and white newspaper-definitely not the color part!-that you have crumpled up. Wear gloves to avoid getting the ink all over your hands!
- One of the most important things to do when you clean your windows is to dry a part at the top or at the side of the window that's about an inch in width. If you start squeegeing or drying on wet glass, then you will get streaks.
- When you are using your squeegee, you should first start with a horizontal stroke across the top of the window. Then do vertical strokes all the way down, and make sure that they are overlapping. Finish the window off with one last horizontal stroke at the bottom of it.
- In between each stroke of your squeegee, wipe it off with a lint free cloth to keep it clean and keep streaks off your window.
- There are a couple of different cleaning solutions that you can use. Of course, you can just go to the store and buy that expensive stuff. But these solutions are tried and true, and can help you get streak free windows every time.
Get a bucket and dump in one gallon of cool water. Mix in four tablespoons of lemon juice. Why lemon juice? Because it will cut right through the grime on your windows and help dissolve it.
Another alternative is to mix a gallon of cool water with four tablespoons of vinegar. The white vinegar will do the exact same thing as the lemon juice.
A third alternative cleaning solution is to combine a cup of rubbing alcohol and a cup of white vinegar along with a few teaspoons of liquid soap (the stuff in your bathroom or that you use on your dishes) in a gallon of warm water. This will also help you cut through grease and grime and get streak free windows.
- So what about those stubborn dirty spots on your window? One thing that you can do to get rid of them is to use just a little bit of oven cleaner. You just spray it on your window, wait for a few minutes, and then wipe the oven cleaner and the grime away.
- Another cleaning tool that you can use is a shower puff. This will help you scrape off grime, but it won't scrape and ruin your window. It's great because it's free of lint. Use the shower puff to just swish your cleaning solution onto your windows. Get the grime off with your shower puff. Then get out your squeegee or your newspaper and you'll have your perfect, streak free window every time.
