This house has a lot of windows. A lot of windows. There are so many doors between rooms, and even windows in the walls, that it's going to require a lot of effort to keep them sparkly clean. For example...
This space here. It's technically my "mud room" though I'm pretty sure it was added later. Why else would you have a window to another room? I like to think it's because my house was visited by Mrs. Winchester once upon a time. She's just trying to protect us from the spirits, obviously.
Then there are these doors between the living room and three season porch. I love them to pieces, but the windows...so many windows...The place wasn't particularly clean when I arrived, and I knew that swift action was required to take advantage of the summer sunlight. I grabbed my windex and paper towels, and set forth...only to be disappointed with unsightly streaks and a lot of effort for nothing.
Enter the fabulous Home Depot, and a fortuitous fifteen minutes spent wandering their cleaning aisles for inspiration. You'll never guess what I found there...
A squeegee! Specifically, an 8'' miniature squeegee, for only $4. This, I knew, was going to be my window cleaning savior. And it already has been. I tried taking before-and-after photos to show you how marvelous my windows now look, but the lighting was not agreeable. You'll have to take my word for it, the post-squeegee windows are where it's at. As my husband would say, they are "the location."
Here's how I've been accomplishing my streak-free window glory. It may not be themosteffective way, but the results are pretty great.
First, take your windex and get some paper towels nice and sudsy. Scrub at your window like you normally would.
Take your squeegee and wipe the liquid away to one side (always moving in the same direction!)
This will leave you with a trail of windex down the side of the window (which is a problem, I'll admit), so I keep a dry paper towel on hand to dab the excess moisture away.
And voila! The once streaky window is now significantly clearer. I won't say streak free, but it's a major improvement.
Remember. $4 at Home Depot. Try it today, and I promise your windows will look cleaner than they did before.
- Cait
When you do your windows, you want to squeegee one side horizontally and the other side vertically. That way you can tell which side of the glass your streaks are on to get rid of them with your paper towels.
ReplyDeleteThat's an excellent idea! With my little french doors, though, I think they're only 6" wide, so the squeegee wouldn't fit. But for larger spaces, that would totally work.
ReplyDeleteNewspaper works for polishing too. Though with recyclable ink it needs to be pretty dry.
ReplyDeleteI had massive cleaning to do recently. I boughta box of paper "rags"200 count for 9$. Far stronger than regular paper towels so notnearly the pile of trash yet still could use fresh as needed. Cleaning isle and painting isle at Home Despot. Not misspelled. You are after all the ruler of you home, no?
I should check out these paper "rags." I saw the real cloth scrap boxes while I was wandering around HD, but we were already making an expensive purchase of power tools for my husband. It's a good thought though!
ReplyDelete