Imagine a scenario – You have spent the entire weekend cleaning up the house! You vacuumed, dusted, and paid special attention to cleaning the windows. You scrubbed and toiled so they can look perfect. But the next day when the company arrived and when that light hit the glass from the outside you start noticing some streaks left. It is enough to make your blood boil and blow the top of your head right off!
Cleaning windows can be an equally tedious task like any other. It may not be compared to scrubbing the toilet bowl but it is certainly not a fun one. But having clean windows can improve the light inside your home and certainly make it brighter. So it is something that is necessary to do.
So how exactly to clean it properly without leaving any streaks behind.
We have a few tips for you to help you with that issue.
Start Using Distilled Water
Most of you dilute the glass cleaners with water when washing your windows. It is a perfectly normal thing to do when cleaning. However, most of us don’t consider the quality of the water that we get from our taps. The quality varies from place to place and there is a great chance that you have hard water filled with various minerals.
Since glass suffers any type of imperfection those minerals can be the main problem in leaving streaks. This is why the perfect solution would be switching to distilled water. Distilled water, as opposed to hard water, doesn’t have almost any minerals that might affect the quality of a glass cleanup. It is also not that expensive and is a good investment if you want to make your windows really clean.
Make Use of Vinegar
Vinegar is good to have around the house as it does not only make your salad taste better it also does wonders for mirrors and glass. In fact, vinegar is a great all-purpose cleaning supplement that can be used to wash tiles or various other things within your house. The best part about it is that it is all-natural as you are not using any chemicals or harmful materials.
So if you are out of your regular glass cleaner to make use of some white vinegar. Mix it up with some warm water in a 50 to 50 ratio and start scrubbing. It really works wonders and you are definitely going to end up with a good and nice cleanup without any streaks.
Use as Less Suds as Possible
This might sound strange but you don’t need a lot of soap for a good cleanup. In fact, too much suds can often be damaging when cleaning up glass or mirrors. If you need to do a deep and thorough cleanup adding too much soap and suds will definitely result in some really nasty streaks left on your glass surface. Be sparing, a little bit goes a long way.
Next time when you are doing this try making a less dense cleaning solution. Mix in 2 quarts of water with 2 quarts of rubbing alcohol and add only three drops of cleaning liquid or dishwashing soap. You will get a nice and good mixture which will not end up with unwanted streaks.
Avoid Paper Towels
Paper towels should be banished at all costs when cleaning windows. Many people make this mistake and use them when cleaning the glass. After scrubbing it with a cleaning solution they would wipe everything off with a paper towel. This is an enormous mistake. It leads to unwanted streaks and even lint that will definitely come off the paper towels.
Instead, use a much different solution and apply either a microfiber cloth or a squeegee. Amazingly enough, there is a completely old school method as well that has proved highly effective in cleaning windows – using old newspapers. Interestingly, your morning newspapers are one of the best ways to lean your windows out and not leave streaks behind.