subject: Cleaning And Removing Your Louvered Vertical Blinds [print this page] If you own vertical blinds you are probably dreading having to clean them since it may appear to be a monumental job to undertake. It does not have to be like that. If you get yourself the correct cleaning products and tools you should be able to clean them in no time whatsoever. The first thing you need to do is to take the window blinds off your windows. You do not want to try and clean them when they are still hanging on your windows.
Vertical blinds are a lot easier to take down from your windows than they were to put up. You are not going to take them completely apart, unless you are considering maybe taking down the head rail.
Before you remove the louvers you need to close the window blinds and use the blind wand to open the louvers themselves so that you can still see through your windows.
Now take a credit card or some sort of plastic card and slip it in between each blind louver and the louvers corresponding louver clip. You need to do this at the top end of each louver. Now you will swing the bottom part of the louver away from the window. Pull the louver out of the louver clip. You will need to do this for each individual louver.
If you want to clean the head rail bracket as well you will need a flat screwdriver to put between the head rail and its release clip that is on the head rail bracket. Then you can turn the bottom of the head rail away from your window in order to remove it from the bracket. This is optional not a required part of the cleaning process because you can clean this by standing on a step stool. If you do it this way, make sure to have some old towels laid down as well to catch any dripping water.
Once you are ready to clean you will need to gather up some paper towels, sponge, scrubber, bucket, water and bleach. Nothing else is needed to add to the water except for the bleach.
You will need to take the bleach and water and mix the two in the bucket. The strength should be about one cap full of bleach for each half gallon of water you are using. Take the sponge and soak it in the bucket with the bleach and water. Take a few sheets of your paper towels off the roll and then place them aside for the time being.
You should get an old sheet, old towels and or a drop cloth for you to clean the window blinds on and to help cut down on messes. You can clean both sides of the window blinds when you lay them on the drop cloth. Take the sponge, squeeze out the water and then just run the sponge up and down the blind. Dry with paper towels and repeat on other side of blind.
Repeat this process with each louver until all of them are clean. If you run into some hard to remove places on the louvers you can take a scrubber to the area to remove stubborn dirt.
After you are done with the cleaning of your blinds simply replace them by attaching each blind louver to the louver clips. If you would rather leave your blinds hanging while you are cleaning them, you can. Take the sponge and push the louver up against your window and run the sponge up and down. This means that you will more than likely have to clean your windows too.
