Shining on a showroom floor or in a magazine ad, mini blinds look fantastic. However, when you get them in your home and they begin to collect dirt and grime, the prospect of cleaning them over the span of hours or days can make you rethink the purchase for sure. The truth is, though, that mini blind cleaning and maintenance does not have to be like that. It can be simple and it can be done so that those detailed and long cleaning sessions never have to happen. Here are a few ways to help you keep it simple while keeping your mini blinds looking great.



In This Case, Do Sweat the Details

When dusting, be sure to use a material to dust that will attract dust away from the blinds; there are many dusting tools out there made of wool or certain synthetics that are effective in using static electricity to do just that. Choose one that works for you. In fact, you can even use a dryer sheet to help prevent static from attracting dust to your blinds in the first place. No matter how you dust, though, be sure the slats are closed when you begin to save yourself a lot of trouble. Keeping the dust off will prevent tougher cleaning jobs later on. If you are really ambitious, every few weeks you can actually remove the blinds from the window and clean them in your bathroom or with a car wash solution and your garden hose. Certainly, though, such a time consuming exercise is not necessary every week. In fact, it is rarely necessary at all.

Get Rid of Grime Easily

If your blinds have begun to accumulate greasy grime or hard to remove dirt from use near a kitchen or where there is a heavy amount of pollution in the air, there is no need to begin scrubbing or scraping. You will, though, need a household cleaner of some sort. One with ammonia in it will likely work best, but anything you already have at home is likely going to work just fine.

Once you have tested the cleaner to make sure it will not do any damage to your blinds, give them a thorough coating of the cleaner and let it sit on the surface for several minutes. These few minutes will give the chemicals time to work on the greasy residues. After the wait, use a soft cloth or paper towel to wipe off the blinds. Don't forget to repeat for the other side as well. The result will be grease-free blinds that look good as new.

Steam Them Off

If your blinds are really caked on and you do not want to have to take them down, consider a steaming. Using the attachment on a home carpet steamer or a rented steam gun, you can remove most anything from your mini blinds. If you choose to go this route, though, you should make sure that your blinds are made to withstand such temperatures. Plastic blinds may warp or melt, so do a test on an out of the way piece or on extra slats you removed during installation.