Cleaning tips for blinds, shutters, and curtains

Window coverings can really tie the room together by framing your windows with a pop of colour, accenting your room with tie-backs or adding an elegant aesthetic to a perhaps bleak interior.  Unfortunately, they’re also prone to picking up dust and grime, not only when left often and the wind outside sweeps it in, but when you’ve got them closed with the fan or a/c blowing around little dust bunnies. However, by adding a routine clean of your blinds, shutters, or curtains to your household chores, you can extend their lifespan – and we’ve got a few quick cleaning tips to help you do it.

Cleaning your blinds

With the many different types of blinds on the market these days, it’s hard to figure out which is the best solution for cleaning your style of blinds. For roller blinds, it’s pretty simple. Fully draw your roller blinds down, exposing the fabric. Give a vacuum all over, ideally with a brush tip. With a damp cloth, remove any stubborn stains, debris, or dust. There’s no need for any harsh chemicals. Allow the blinds to fully dry before rolling them up again. Roman blinds can also use a good vacuum once a week, however, only use a damp cloth on spots where there are stubborn stains. 

Venetian blinds differ a little bit in their cleaning process depending on the material they are made from. Timber blinds are susceptible to water as it can warp the wood so you want to wipe them down with a paper towel or microfibre cloth. If that doesn’t do the job, you can find specific wood-cleaning chemicals to try to gently rub the stain away. Aluminium and PVC blinds can handle a damp cloth and a little more aggression with your cleaning program. A bit of soap or conventional cleaning chemicals should be fine for these types of blinds also. 

How to keep your shutters clean

Dusting your shutters frequently should reduce the need to deep clean them down to once or twice a year. However, if you do find yourself needing to give them a real wash down, a damp cloth can help remove most dust build-up. Using a 50/50 solution of water and white vinegar with a small dash of mild dish soap and wringing out the cloth to almost dry can help with those really stubborn stains. 

However, it’s important that if you have real wood shutters, they do not get wet. The best way to dust wood shutters is to dust the top, bottom, and side of each slat with a dry or microfibre cloth. Once a month, you can clean each slat with a soft cloth that has been lightly sprayed with furniture polish or lemon oil. These ingredients help preserve the natural beauty of the wood.

Washing your curtains

Curtains require more regular cleaning than blinds. Like carpet, curtains tend to hold onto more dust and smells as they get wrapped up in the fabric and folds. Giving them a quick vacuum can actually help remove dust and can actually be a way to get a kick start on preventing mildew spores from building up. Check the tags on your curtains as some of them are machine washable with specific instructions. If there are no instructions, we suggest hand washing them in cold water and then air-drying. 

If your curtains are not machine washable, you can still give them a quick vacuum before taking them outside and shaking them like a rug. You can spray them with products like Febreze to freshen them up or try steam cleaning them with upholstery attachments. If your curtains are made of velvet, velour, chenille, tapestry, brocade, wool or silk, you can have them dry cleaned. 

Don’t forget to clean the window frame, sills, and the curtains track and rods while the curtains themselves are getting a good clean. Curtains should be cleaned weekly and laundered once a year. 

Contact us 

With regular dusting and periodic deep cleaning, you can keep your window coverings looking as good as new. However, if you find them beyond the cleaning stage, consider installing new shutters from our team at Twoshade Shutters & Blinds where we manufacture everything right here in Brisbane so you know it’s built to withstand harsh Queensland weather environments. We have a wide range of blinds, shutters, and curtains to meet both your aesthetic and functionality requirements, plus we can give you tips on how to maintain them and elongate their lifespan. Get in touch with us today on (07) 3726 9525.