Tuesday Tips - Window Cleaning

Oh the windows, we all love windows right? I love opening the blinds and letting in some sunshine. What I don't love is opening the blinds to find finger prints, and smears of who knows what streaking across the glass. Not to mention the same smears on the blinds.
Maybe you don't have kids and don't have quite the same problem I do. But you still get dust sitting on the blinds. 
Once again, browsing pinterest I found this great idea for cleaning blinds. This tip originated from Robin at Keep Home Simple (so glad I found her blog. I feel like she's me....but cooler!)  Right back to the cleaning tip.  So Robin mixes equal part vinegar and water, then slips a sock on her hand and cleans the blinds.

Source: keephomesimple.blogspot.com via Adelina on Pinterest

It's really a brilliant idea. You can use whatever cleaner you like. I personally prefer just some really hot water to help pick the dust off the blinds.  The vinegar is a nice touch to help kill those smears from little kids hands.  The best sock to use would be one you don't plan on wearing again. You know from that pile of unmatched socks that has been sitting in your laundry room for-e-ver!  I only had little kid socks to work with. Depending on how many blinds you plan on cleaning, and how big your windows are, I don't suggest using small socks. They get dirty fast, and you'll spend more time rinsing them out then actually cleaning. But if you have an adult sock, you can probably get a lot more clean at a time (pending on just how dirty you let your blinds get....yes there's a big arrow pointing above my head right now...). 
The biggest downside I found to this method, is you can't easily change sides of the sock like you can with a rag. So you really do have to rinse it out to keep cleaning. Other than that, the blinds are much easier to grab and hold in place while cleaning! I'm even going to add a little my tip here, put a dry sock on your other hand, and you can dry the blinds as you wash them!

Now on to those dirty windows! By the way, I suggest cleaning the blinds first, or you may accidentally streak dust onto your clean windows from your blinds (yes I found out the hard way).  My personal favorite window cleaner is Windex and Newspapers! Yes Newspapers. Most of us have them sitting in piles, feeling guilty if we throw them out. Newspapers make great window cleaners. They'll leave your windows streak and FUZZ free. I don't know about you, but if I use a wash rag I get little fuzzies all over my windows.
Now here's the thing. Today when I went to grab my newspapers, I realized I had a lot of brown packing paper. So I decided to give it a try. It's my new favorite cleaning "rag".  The packing paper holds up much better than newpaper allowing you to use less of it at a time.

*While looking for a picture of the packing paper, I came across this article on FunInTheMaking.com with more ways to reuse that packing paper!