The Easiest Way to Clean Blinds

You don’t really think about how to clean your window blinds until you have to, but when you get down to it, it’s a tedious job. You probably avoid cleaning them as long as possible, but eventually, the job needs to be done. Fortunately, there’s an easy method you probably haven’t heard of.

Use tongs to clean your blinds

The quick and dirty (well, quick and clean) method of blind-cleaning is so simple. Head to your kitchen and grab a pair of tongs, the smaller the better. Wrap a microfiber cloth around each tong and secure it with a rubber band. In a pinch, you can put socks on each tong.

Then, surround each slat in the blinds with the two softened-up tong sides, clamp down, swipe, and move to the next one, periodically shaking the dust off into the garbage.

Take cleaning your blinds to the next level

If you really want to take things up a notch, spray some household cleaner directly onto the blinds first. Just bear in mind that if it’s too wet, you’ll probably have to go over them again with dry rags or socks. That still beats the hell out of doing it by hand, though.

If you feel like repeating the process again, try using your tong contraption to add a dust repellant to your blinds, maximizing the time between this cleaning and the next one. By mixing vinegar, olive oil, some soap, and water, you can make a solution that will repel dust from your surfaces. Of course, that dust will go somewhere—like your floor or windowsill—but larger surfaces are easier to clean than blinds, so that’s still kind of a win.