As we rapidly approach the warmer, sunnier months of the year, now is the perfect time to tackle those jobs you’ve been putting off for so long around the house. You know the ones, the ones that need doing, but you just can’t bring yourself to tackle. Jobs like cleaning and maintaining your skylight shades and blinds!
Skylights are an integral part of homes up and down the nation. They allow natural sunlight to stream into the home, but they also offer so much more. Skylights improve the aesthetic appeal of your home while adding value at the same time. They also provide comforting, warming, relaxing spaces. In order to ensure they work as they should, and look their best at all times, they also need plenty of care and maintenance.
While people often give their skylights a good cleaning several times a year, many of them tend to overlook their shades/blinds. This is a huge mistake as not only can they get dirty and unsightly, but they can also become riddled with dust.
To help you keep your skylight blinds/shades clean and dust-free at all times, here are a few useful cleaning tips to consider.
Keep the Frame Clean
A common mistake that people make when cleaning their skylights and blinds, is failing to clean the frame. This is a big mistake as not only can it cause your skylights and blinds to look dirty and unsightly, but if dust and dirt is allowed to build up too much, it can affect the opening and closing mechanisms of the blinds themselves.
When cleaning the blinds and skylights, give the frame a quick wipe down with a damp microfiber cloth, an eco-friendly, anti-bacterial cleaning solution, and a clean, dry, microfiber cloth or towel to dry.
When cleaning the frame of your skylights, make sure you clean the internal operating mechanisms as well. If you allow them to become clogged with dust and debris, they won’t open and close smoothly and correctly and the blinds could end up sticking.
Use Natural, Non-Abrasive Cleaning Solutions
To ensure that your skylight blinds and shades remain clean, dust-free, and looking their best, it’s always best to use natural, non-abrasive cleaning solutions.
Avoid using harsh chemicals as these can damage the fabric of your blinds, as well as the seal around the edge of your skylights, and even the glass window itself.
Instead, find a natural cleaning solution, or make your own from a mixture of equal parts white vinegar and water. When you apply the cleaning solution, do so gently, in smooth circular motions using a clean microfiber sponge or cloth.
Use a Squeegee on the Glass
As well as cleaning and dusting your skylight blinds, it’s important to clean your skylights themselves, and that includes the glass. This is where squeegees are especially useful.
Squeegees are ideal as they remove all traces of water and cleaning solutions, without leaving any watermarks, smears, streaks, lint, or droplets behind. They’re also very easy to use and are far easier than rubbing and scrubbing.
Draw up a Cleaning Schedule
Skylight blinds and shades are not like your typical window curtains. They fit far more snugly and because of their close proximity to the skylights, this means that they’re more exposed to dirt, dust, debris, and other contaminants, especially when the skylights are open.
As mentioned, dusty and dirty skylight blinds and shades don’t just look unsightly, they can also fail to operate as well as they should. One of the easiest ways of ensuring this doesn’t happen is to draw up a cleaning schedule and clean them regularly.
How frequently you clean and dust them is entirely down to you, but we recommend at least once per month for a deeper clean, and a weekly/fortnightly dusting to help keep on top of the dust. Even if you can’t see signs of much dirt or dust, it’s always a good idea to dust and clean them regularly just to stay on top of things.
Ensure There’s Plenty of Ventilation
Skylights can often suffer with condensation, which can then drip onto the blinds and cause staining, as well as mold and damp problems that could be hazardous to your health.
A very simple way to prevent condensation is to ensure there’s plenty of ventilation nearby. If your skylights are vented and they open, maybe consider leaving them open slightly just to ensure that the air can circulate and warm humid, moist air can escape rather than causing condensation.
Keep Your Home Dirt and Dust-Free
One of the simplest ways of ensuring that your skylight blinds remain dirt and dust-free is to keep the rest of your home as dirt and as dust-free as you possibly can as well.
While dusting your skylight and giving the blinds and shades a good wipe down is always a good idea, if your home is particularly dusty, you’ll find that your skylight blinds aren’t dust-free for very long. The more dust in the air, the more dust can then settle on your skylight blinds, and the worse they will look.
To keep your skylights and blinds looking clean and fresh, make sure you give the rest of your home a good clean and take care of any visible dust as soon as you spot it. Don’t just leave it to get worse because the longer you wait, the more dust will accumulate and the dirtier your blinds will look.
Leave the Blind to Completely dry Before Retracting
Finally, if you are giving your shades and blinds a bit more of a deeper clean, rather than a quick dusting, it’s important that you leave the blinds to completely dry before you retract them.
A lot of people make the mistake of rolling down their blinds, wiping them with a damp cloth and various cleaning solutions, and then simply retracting them and rolling them back up when damp. This is a big mistake that could potentially cause pretty serious problems.
If you were to roll down your blinds, wipe them, and then retract them, you will trap in moisture which could lead to bacteria, mold issues, and bad odors. Therefore, it’s important that you leave your skylight blinds to completely dry before you retract them and roll them back up.
