Clean

clean windows

Cleaning windows is a chore that most of us would rather not do. We put it off until it becomes an absolute necessity.  Why?  Because it’s tedious. We try various methods and cleaners and still we end up with streaks and smears that seem to get worse the more we try to eradicate them.  What I’d like to share with you today is the absolute fastest and easiest way I’ve ever found to clean windows and mirrors.  No, it’s not hire a maid.  No, it’s not a new magic product or gizmo.  It’s a simple, time-tested method used by professional window cleaners.

Before we talk about what you will need to use this method, let’s go over what you DON’T need.  You don’t need newspaper or “lint-free” cloths.  To begin with, there really is no such thing as a lint-free cloth. Lint is the breaking off of pieces of fiber from a fabric.  Fabrics made from natural fibers, like cotton, wool, and linen, produce more lint than fabrics made of synthentic fibers like polyester and nylon.  But they all produce some lint. And who wants little pieces of lint all over the window they just cleaned?  You also don’t need any newspaper.  Newspaper, of course, is made of wood pulp – a source of plant fibers just like flax is used to make linen.  And just like linen, guess what newspaper produces?  Yup. . .lint.  Newspaper also leaves another residew – newsprint – or rather the ink from the print.  You also don’t need ammonia or alcohol (ethyl or rubbing) to make your windows sparkle.

What you do need are two simple things.  The first is a good quality brass or stainless steel professional window squeegee and the second is a good quality glass cleaner.  Please read that sentence again.  Good quality.  This is not a run-of-the-mill plastic or aluminum channel squeegee from the local discount or dollar store.  You can find the good ones at a janitorial or commercial cleaning supply store.  They come in a couple of different widths. It depends on what kind of windows you have which one you’ll want.  Average prices are in the $6.50 to $8.50 range for a 10 or 12 inch squeegee.

You know those little wooden or plastic dividers between small panes of glass in a window?  Those are called muntins. If you have windows without muntins or that have removable muntins you’ll want a sqeegee a little less than 1/3 the width of your windows. So, if you have, say, a 36 inch wide window a 10 inch wide squeegee will do just fine.  If, however, you have windows with in-built (non-removable) muntins, you want a sqeegee the width of your panes. But what if the smallest squeegee is to wide for your panes?  Customize it!  Carefully remove the rubber strip from the brass or stainless steel squeegee channel.  Holding the channel in a vice or clamped to a sturdy worktable or saw horse, cut the channel down evenly on both sides with a hack saw to 1/2 inch LESS than your pane width.  Now cut the rubber strip exactly the width of the pane and reinsert it into the channel.  This leaves 1/4 inch of rubber at each end beyond the actual channel.  This is important so you don’t scratch your glass.

The process of washing the window is very easy.  First, remove the muntins if they are removable. Then follow these steps for each pane:

1. Wet the glass thoroughly, but not dripping, with your glass cleaner.
2. Let the solution work for about 2 minutes.
3. Holding the sqeegee against the glass with the right edge of the squeegee at a 45 degree angle to the top of the glass sweep a clean stripe across the top of the pane about 4 inches high. Wipe the rubber blade of the sqeegee on a dry towel.
4. Starting on the left, place the squeegee in the middle of the clean stripe with the left edge against the left edge of the pane and pull the sqeegee all the way to the bottom of the pane. Wipe the sqeegee blade again.  For small panes this one down swipe will cover the entire pane and you just go on to the next pane.
5. Repeat step 4 in the middle of the window pane, overlapping slightly the clean area to the left. Wipe the blade. If you have wide windows it make take several “steps” to get across the window.
6. Repeat step 4 on the right of the window pane with the right edge of the sqeegee against the right edge of the window pane.

Now, you may notice some small beads of water just along any of the edges of the window pane.   You’re first instinct will be to take the towel and dab at them.   DON’T.  If you do you will then find you have small smudges instead of the beads and your next instinct will be to wrap the towel around a finger and polish it clean.  DON’T.  It gets progressively worse.   So JUST DON’T.   Those small beads of water will evaporate and you’ll never know they were there and your windows will sparkle and shine, smear-free and streak-free and easy as pie.

homemade glass cleaner

This is the quickest, easiest, safest and cheapest glass cleaner you can make.  There is no need for hazardous chemicals like ammonia or ethyl/isopropanol alcohol to make your windows and mirrors shine.

Mix all the ingredients in a clean empty spray bottle and shake well.  Label your bottle.  I use a permanent waterproof marker right on the bottle.  Paper labels get wet and smear or come off.

1/2 cup white vinegar

2 tsp. liquid soap

3 cups warm water

homemade dishwashing liquid

This dishwashing liquid may not be as thick or suds as much as the store bought varieties but it cleans just as well, is much less expensive, and contains no ingredients that are harmful to people, pets, or the environment.  Remember — suds are like hype — it may make it seem as if a product producing lots of suds is doing a lot of work but the bottom line is that suds don’t clean. It’s the water and soap in this recipe that does the cleaning.  The glycerin is an emollient to protect your skin.  The lemon juice dissolves grease and kills germs and bacteria.

The essential oil of lemon is optional.  You can get many essential oils at very good prices at Mountain Rose Herbs.

1/4 cup soap flakes
2 cups hot water
2 tsp. glycerin
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
4 drops lemon oil (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a clean empty squeeze bottle. Cover, and shake well to blend. Label your container. I like to use a permanent waterproof marker directly on the bottle.  This dishwashing liquid has a shelf like of 3 to 4 months.

liquid soap

The basic liquid soap is used in multiple other formulas.  There are four choices with varying degrees of effort in creating a basic liquid soap.

Choice 1:  Make liquid soap using vegetable oil(s) and potassium hydroxide.  The advantage of making your own liquid soap from scratch is its purity.  The disadvantage is that it takes 4 to 8 hours to make soap.

Choice 2:  Make liquid soap by grating a bar of pure soap and mixing it with boiling water until the soap has dissolved.  The advantage of this method is it takes far less time than choice #1 and less expensive than choice #3 or #4.

Choice 3:  Purchase pure soap flakes and mix with boiling water until the soap has dissolved.  I haven’t found any local establishments who carry soap flakes but I have found a couple on the internet – but they cost more than I was willing to pay.  Proctor and Gamble stopped making Ivory Soap Flakes in 1993.

Choice 4:  Purchase a liquid soap, such as castile.  The disadvantage of this choice is that these can be a bit pricey.

Unless you’re already a soaper (slang for someone who makes soap) choice #2 (or #3 if you can get the flakes at a decent price) is the easiest and cheapest for most people.  Making soap flakes is easy.  Just grate the bar of soap with your kitchen grater just like a vegetable.  It won’t hurt your grater – just be sure and wash it well and rinse in a mild vinegar bath (3 tablespoons of vinegar to a gallon of water) so the next veggie you grate doesn’t taste like soap.

To turn your pile of soap flakes into liquid soap mix 1 cup of soap flakes with 3 cups of boiling water in a wide mouthed container with a tight fitting lid.  A large quart jar (save the earth and reuse an empty one!) works wonderfully.  Now just imagine you’re south of the border at a fiesta and the jar is a maraca and shake, shake, shake!  You could even put on some spicy Latino music and burn a few extra calories while you’re making soap.  Multitasking FTW!

white vinegar

Vinegar results from a natural fermentation process – the oxidation by acetic acid bacteria of the ethanol found in beer, cider, wine or any other alcoholic liquid. Acetic acid bacteria are a gram-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacteria present universally in foodstuffs, water, and soil. The acetic acid concentration of vinegar usually falls around 5 percent by volume for table vinegar up to 18 percent or higher for pickling vinegar. At a 5% concentration vinegar has a pH of about 2.4, slightly less acidic than lemon juice. Acetic acid is detectible by a characteristic smell.

Concentrations by weight of 10% to 25% are classified as an irritant. Higher than 25% is corrosive and must be handled with great care as it can cause skin burns, mucous membrane irritation, and permanent eye damage that may not even appear until hours after the exposure. Concentrations over 90% are also flammable. Common table vinegars, including distilled white vinegar, are safe for humans and animals.

Among vinegar’s versatile aspects you’ll find the following:

1. Vinegar is antibacterial.

2. It is also antifungal.

3. Vinegar will dissolve mineral deposits including limescale and hard water spots from glass and hard surfaces.

4. Vinegar included in a bath and tile formula as a rinsing agent will help prevent bathtub rings and soap scum.

5. It is an effective solvent for epoxy resin and hardener.

6. Vinegar is safe as a herbicide as the acetic acid is not absorbed into root systems. It will kill top-growth but perennials will reshoot.