We’re now past the official vernal equinox and the meteorological start of the season, so it’s safe to say that spring is here – even if the weather isn’t necessarily reflecting that everywhere in the country.
You should be starting to see a difference now in terms of extra daylight – but you might also be seeing the impact of the winter that’s gone in terms of your home. Being cooped up indoors and not having the chance to naturally ventilate the rooms can make your home seem stuffy and dirty once it’s highlighted by those rays of sunshine.
This is especially the case when it comes to your windows. We bet you’ve already glanced at those panes and sills and experienced a sinking feeling at how grimy they look, with dust and potentially a few damp spots having gathered inside over the past few months.
If this is the case, then don’t be disheartened – spring is the perfect time to spruce them up and have them sparkly clean again. Let’s take a look at the ideal way to go about this task when you have some cleaning time available.
- Give them a dry clean
Inclement weather during autumn and winter can really hurl a lot of dirt at the outside of your glass, while dust from fires and the like can quickly build up on the inside. If you start with a wet sponge, you’re just going to rub all this around and risk scratches as well as inadvertently making more mess.
To begin with, it’s important to vacuum your sills and frames and dust them with something like a microfiber duster to get rid of that build-up. Pay particular attention to mechanisms like tracks, as they can get clogged up and damaged.
- Get the windows wet
Now’s the time for wetting the windows all over. Fill a bucket with warm soapy water – washing up liquid is fine, or you can even use a teaspoon of dishwasher powder – and soak a sponge with it. Wipe all along the sills and frames and keep rinsing and replacing the water if necessary to get rid of the dirt. Focus on the bottom corners where condensation may lead to the beginnings of mould patches and get in deeper with a cotton bud soaked in your soap solution if you need to. You can also use a cream cleaner as a second stage to really get uPVC white again.
- Focus on the panes
You can start getting the actual glass clean next. We’ll start with indoors here, but the same goes for the outside throughout this piece, so you can get some fresh air and make a start there once you’ve done so. You can use shop-bought window cleaning products, but you could also make your own using around 60ml of white wine vinegar mixed with 500ml of warm water in a spray bottle.
Apply it liberally and quickly wipe it around and then make use of a kitchen towel, a microfiber cloth or an old cotton rag to prevent streaks.
- The final shine
There’s lots of debate about how to finish off cleaning windows, but we still love the old technique of using crumpled-up newspaper for a final buff. Just take a dry piece, rub it all over the pane and you should notice any final marks vanish to leave a clean-streak-free surface.
Follow these tips and you will have no obstacles to the sun streaming in this spring – but if you haven’t got the time and are already tired of that dirt showing up, you could always enlist the services of a professional cleaning company instead.
Sources:
https://www.thompsoncreek.com/blog/spring-cleaning-best-way-clean-windows
https://www.homeclick.com/how-to-clean-windows-[and-the-best-time-of-year-to-do-so]/ar-1410.aspx
