Do you plan to deep clean your home? Well, in that case, you are in for a tough task that may take you a whole day and even more. You will need to consider cleaning and sanitizing a lot of spots and parts in your home that you rarely think of when doing your regular weekly chores. Maybe you will even ask yourself how to clean vertical blinds in the most efficient way possible. The job might sound nearly impossible, but the truth is that if you follow a few easy-to-follow steps and simple cleaning tips even stubborn stains stand no chance.

When it comes to cleaning vertical blinds, a step-by-step guide can be very helpful. Different materials, such as fabric vertical blinds, may require specific part cleaning tools and methods, so it’s important to check the manufacturer’s notes.

First and foremost, make sure that you have the right tools of trade at hand:

• Some warm water
• A microfiber cloth, vacuum cleaner, and stain remover for stubborn stains
• Gentle laundry detergent

Also, make sure that you have a flat surface to lay your vertical blinds while you are deep cleaning and drying them once you have a hundred percent clean vertical blinds.

Should I take my vertical blinds down?

You might feel tempted to leave your vertical blinds hanging while cleaning them. It might sound like the easier solution to the problem, but the truth is that by doing so you will not be able to properly clean vertical blinds of any type, and you are likely to damage them in the cleaning process too.

The job of taking down and build up your vertical blinds is simpler than it may seem at first look.

Start by removing the vertical slats from the spring clips. Most spring clips are plastic, so be careful not to break them. Use a ladder to reach them, because climbing on furniture can be pretty dangerous. Once you do that, remove the headrail from the brackets of your vertical blinds and proceed to unscrew the brackets from the windows. In that way, you can easily remove your vertical blinds and place them on the flat surface you are going to use to clean them. You can inspect them better that way and detect areas heavily stained by dust, or even vertical blinds mold which affects both fabric blinds and wooden blinds.

Remove Blind Slats and Clean Vertical Blinds Headrail

Before you start with the process of getting your vertical blinds clean, make sure that you unhook the slats and thoroughly clean the headrail. You can use a microfiber cloth and some luke warm water. If you have skipped cleaning the vertical blinds in your home during the last few spring cleanings, you might want to use a heavy-duty stain or mold remover for the purpose. Getting the headrail first will ensure you’ve tackled the hardest job first, and will give enough time to the surface to dry before rehanging your vertical blinds.

Washing Your Blinds in Warm Water

Depending on the material your blinds are made of, you might wash vertical blinds in warm water in the bathtub or even toss them in the washing machine. Using the washing machine is the quickest and most painless way to go around the task to clean blinds. Be advised, however, that even blinds that are approved for cleaning in a washing machine according to the manufacturer’s notes might get damaged. So, washing them by hand and scrubbing stains with a damp cloth might turn out to be your safest bet.

Soak the blinds well and use baby wipes or a wet sponge to remove any mold you see. It is advisable to leave the powerful stain remover and detergents for emergencies only because they are so strong they might potentially damage the fabric. Make sure to use the brush attachment of your vacuum cleaner to remove dirt and dust built-ups. Also, you might want to resort to homemade remedies such as lemon juice on a damp cloth for both the stubborn stains on delicate fabrics.

Lay Blinds Out to Dry

As you can see, the question of how to clean vertical blinds sounds scary only at first. After you have run the vacuum cleaner through all the dust and fabrics and washed them in warm, soapy water, you can just toss them in the tumble dryer for a bit, and then lay your blinds on the clean vertical surface you prepared to completely dry them. It’s best to leave them out of direct sunlight, as to avoid damaging their colors. Drying your vertical blinds in that way may take a little longer, depending on the weather, but it is the best course of action if you want to enjoy them for longer.

Rehang Your Blinds

Now that your clean vertical blinds are thoroughly dried, all you have to do is rehang them. For that purpose, you will need to follow the same steps that you used to remove them from your windows, but in reverse.