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Old Stylee window cleaning - ideas please!

Allexie
Allexie Posts: 3,460 Forumite
in Old style MoneySaving
Over the years I must have tried every commercial window-cleaning product known to person-kind...Windowlene, Sparkle, Mr Muscle etc, plus all the shops own-brands - but always with the same results icon8.gif After my exertions, and considering my windows clean and sparkling inside and out, I sit down with a cup of tea, (thus changing my viewing angle I guess), only to see loads of smears on the glass :eek:

Please can I have some instructions/methods/hints/tips for getting really clean and smear-free windows. Some of my windows face a main road so they get awful mucky/greasy/black gunk on them. I'm sure I've read on here about white vinegar, :rolleyes: and newspaper, (Posh paper or red-top :D ) but just how do you go about it? Do you clean with detergent first?








*** Pitter-patter, pitter-patter ....... hark, whose footsteps are those? Could it be St Squeaks the Domestic God?? icon12.gif ***
♥♥♥ Genius - 1% inspiration and 99% doing what your mother told you. ♥♥♥

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Comments

  • sunsetgirl
    sunsetgirl Posts: 78 Forumite
    I use neat white vinegar from a spray bottle and rub off with a clean rag. I used to use window cleaning glass sprays and when I first changed over to natural cleaning it took a while to get all the residues off the panes. Bedroom windows can look greasy due to our exhaled breath , so rub a slice of lemon over the glass first then clean with vinegar.
    hope this helps
  • Chris25
    Chris25 Posts: 12,918 Forumite
    Photogenic First Anniversary First Post I've been Money Tipped!
    I wash with hand hot water with a small squirt of washing-up liquid. Then I rinse with a mix of hand hot water and white vinegar and use an e cloth. It's a lot of work but I look at it as valuable exercise.:D

    I know a lot of people swear by using newspaper to dry off with because of the ink but I don't think many papers use that now.
  • Edinburghlass_2
    Edinburghlass_2 Posts: 32,680 Forumite
    First Post Combo Breaker
    I only ever use vinegar, white, brown whatever to hand, in water put on with a jay cloth, no need to rinse and always wiped off with newspaper.

    Your hands get dirty with the newspaper but the windows are just fine. As are all my fifteen pane glass doors ;)
  • Scoflo
    Scoflo Posts: 329 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    Edinburghlass wrote:
    I only ever use vinegar, white, brown whatever to hand, in water put on with a jay cloth, no need to rinse and always wiped off with newspaper.

    Your hands get dirty with the newspaper but the windows are just fine. As are all my fifteen pane glass doors ;)

    same as me but clean the inside one way ie up & down , the outside the other ie side to side. If there is a streak it is easy seen where to tackle it. :beer:
    :hello: Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want:hello:
  • apprentice_tycoon
    apprentice_tycoon Posts: 3,300 Forumite
    I use soapy water and a squeegee like the window cleaners do, we have 4 large patio doors and it's the quickest way to do them -

    out of interest when my son was very small he saw me wiping the windows with a yellow duster (in the days when I used windowlene) 2 minutes later he too was wiping the windows with something yellow - the inside of a banana skin :eek:
  • chrislee765
    chrislee765 Posts: 380 Forumite
    windowlene.. thing of the past :)
    Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life.
  • barbie_babe
    barbie_babe Posts: 668 Forumite
    i use newspaper and vinegar hands get very messing but windows come up lovely.
    :j
  • Allexie
    Allexie Posts: 3,460 Forumite
    scottishflower2000 wrote:
    same as me but clean the inside one way ie up & down , the outside the other ie side to side. If there is a streak it is easy seen where to tackle it. :beer:

    Now that is dead clever!!!!! :T
    ♥♥♥ Genius - 1% inspiration and 99% doing what your mother told you. ♥♥♥

  • elvis_bloggs
    elvis_bloggs Posts: 8,276 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post
    I just wash my windows with soapy water then wipe dry, sod the streaks, they are not dangerous so I don't bother about them and I only wash the windows when it starts getting difficult to see out of them anyway. 1a-a15.gif
  • culpepper
    culpepper Posts: 4,076 Forumite
    when I can be bothered to do mine ,I use the squeegee and soapy water method as mentioned above.I keep an old nappy in my other hand and each time I squeegee,I wipe the blade to remove any bits that it might have picked up.The one bucket of water does for the whole house and its only a small squirt of washing up liquid.
    Mum used to do hers with windolene and then polish them with a newspaper.
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