Question:
I read your post on The Best Way to Clean Blinds, Part 1, and was hoping you wouldn’t mind expanding a bit on cleaning, but on a different type of blind. I have the attached blinds which open from the top and bottom. Love them but they are a material blind (polyester or something) and living in NYC the dust is horrible. The backs of my shades were white at one point and are now grey. Is there any hope for cleaning these kinds of blinds? and if so, how?
Answer:
This is a great question and I’ve actually had a few people ask me this question since my post on how to clean blinds. Most blinds will be attached to a track, or frame, which the blinds can be removed from. So here is what to do to clean them.
Step 1
Remove the blinds from the window frame.
Step 2
Fill a bathtub with warm water and add 2 TBS of a mild, dye-free laundry detergent or dish soap. Either one will work but the laundry detergent will be less sudsy. If you’re blinds are white you can also add a little baking soda or bleach to help whiten them. Don’t add more then 1 TBS.
Step 3
Once the tub is 1/2 full turn off the water and place the blinds in the water. Swish {for lack of a better word} them around in the water, open and close them, and if you have one, scrub them very gently with a soft scrub brush. Get as much of the dirt out as possible, then drain the water. Repeat this process once or twice, depending on how dirty the blinds are.
Step 4
After the dirt/dust has been washed off the blinds fill the tub up one more time, but this time do not add any soap. This will act as a “rinse cycle”. Swish the blinds around in the water some more to make sure all of the dirt and soap have been rinsed off.
Step 5
Remove the blinds from the water and pat dry with a towel. You can dry them two ways: hang them up and let them dry naturally or you can blow them dry with a hair dryer on a low-heat setting.
Have fun washing!
I have those blinds in my motorhome so how would I clean
them. They can not be taken down?
If you can’t remove them I would just vacuum them and then wipe them down with a damp cloth. That should get rid of most (hopefully all) of the dust bunnies. 🙂
Thank you for sharing this information. I have these blinds in my kitchen window and have been wondering if it was safe to wash them in the manner you described. I’ll put that on the list for this weekend, an early start to my “spring cleaning”.
Can I paint cellular blinds?
I wouldn’t because I think the paint would flake over time and I think it would end up looking really bad. Sorry. 🙁
love the bath idea brilliant will try it with my white kithchen blinds a bit worried about the material binding but should be ok.
My bathtub is very short my cellular blinds from blinds .com
Are very wide and they are battery operated. Now if I buy a kids pool
And do this outside. All I have is cold water. Will that do any good
I have candles in the house didn’t realize that they it crap into the air. Leaving smoke on my $1k blinds. Help
Yeah, candles will do that, I hate that about them. I don’t think you would need to buy a pool, I think you could just lay some towels out on your driveway, then lay the shades over the towels and spray them with the hose. If you have a pressure washer you could use that on a lower setting. Since you can’t soak them in water on your driveway, I’d dilute bleach in a spray bottle and spray them down with that, then rinse it off with the hose/pressure washer. Does that make sense?
Hi Anna,
We’ve read on some websites warnings about getting cellular blinds wet, for fear the liquid will dissolve the adhesive used to manufacture them.
Many of our double cellular blinds have black mildew growing on the side facing the window. We’re worried about all sorts of things…the mildew staining the fabric, and most of all…how to remove the mildew without ruining very expensive blinds.
Wondering what the best thing to clean them with…or should we send them out to be cleaned professionally?
We’re also wondering about trying to spray them with Lysol.
Help please.
Thanks,
Karen
If you are dealing with a mildew issue I would send them out to have them professionally cleaned. I don’t know how much that costs but if it’s too much maybe consider steam cleaning them. I’ve never used Lysol spray on fabric before so I’m not sure about that, I’d be worried about that staining the blinds. I know I’m not much help here but I would love to know what you end up deciding to do, so I know what to tell people in the future that might be having the same issue. Good luck!
How would a diluted bleach work?
That would probably work great!
So after painting all my woodwork, I decided to try and wash my double cell Bali shades. I did it a little different, but it worked great. I used one scoop of oxi clean, Tide laundry detergent (about 1/4 cup and used very warm water (just enough to cover the shade). I let each shade soak about 20 minutes, and followed that with a soft brush. I did both sides and let the water drain from the tub, and then clear water to rinse. I squeezed the shades as if they were in a closed position, wrapped a towel around it and put them on a table on my deck with a towel underneath them. I opened them up about 18 inches and periodically rearranged the pleats to facilitate faster drying. I also changed the towel they were laying on once during the dry time. Thanks for your help giving me the courage to give it a try!
Great, I’m so glad this was helpful! I like your combination of oxi clean and laundry detergent too, that’s a great alternative for readers to try, thank you for sharing. 🙂
I have 3 patio fabric blinds and usually vacuum weekly but now they look grey and dirty. Can I spray with a cleaning solution and let them air dry?
If you have a steamer I would use that instead. My thought is that once you spray the cleaner on there’s no way to get it off unless you take them down and rinse them. The HomeRight SteamMachine is great for projects like steaming blinds, furniture, etc. 🙂
Hi Anna,
I found you on Pinterest and just in time. We have cellular blinds and I too have been looking for a way to clean them. We have 20 window blinds, we don’t have a bathtub in our house so I found rectangular storage bins that just fit our blinds. We are glad to find you!!!
Thanks,
Joi
Awesome! 20 is a lot to clean so good luck!! 🙂