Housekeeping for Home Sellers: Dealing with Dirty Window Blinds
Window blinds of all kinds make great window treatment options and can inject an awful lot of style into a room with ease, which is why so many people love them. If you are staging your home for sale they make life easier too, as they are usually rather neutral in style and will rarely ‘offend’ a buyer’s design tastes.
The one thing that many people do wonder about though is exactly how to clean these kinds of blinds though – obviously very important when staging – and then keep them clean, since tossing them into the washing machine is not usually an options as it is with many drapes.
With that in mind here’s how to care for some of the more common types of blinds, shutters, and shades.
Basic Care and Cleaning
Mini Blinds – Vacuum mini blinds carefully with your cleaner’s soft brush attachment or dust with a feather or lamb’s wool duster.
Vertical Blinds – If you are going to vacuum your vertical blinds use the smallest soft brush attachment you have but better still give them a daily dust with a lambs wool duster. If your vertical blinds are fabric covered and become stained, spot clean the affected area only with plain water. Do not use detergent or soap, it will almost inevitably stain.
Wood Blinds – The occasional dusting is a must and a regular once over with a wood cleaner such as oil soap can keep your wooden blinds looking bright and new. Do not ever use straight soap and water on your wooden blinds though, as water stains are permanent and will ruin the appearance of your wooden blinds.
Vinyl Shades – Vinyl is a nice economical blind option but it is a little harder to take care of. To clean vinyl blinds they really do need to be removed from the window. Once that is done, unroll and carefully lay flat. (To flatten, place a small weight, such as a coffee mug, at each end .) Wash just one side with a sponge dipped in a mild soap and water solution. Rinse with a clean, damp rag and dry with a cloth, then turn over and repeat on the other side.
Obviously this does not have to be a daily – or even weekly – chore but as you want to ensure that your home makes the best impression possible on potential buyers it is something to add to your pre-showing clean up routine when necessary.