Nobody gets very excited about house cleaning. We always wish the house would just never need cleaning. And frankly, cleaning window screens is a pretty daunting household chore.
Our expert team has come up with the best way to clean your window screens. The procedures covered here are thoroughly researched, tested, and best of all really easy to follow!
Why Clean your Window Screens?
Window screens are among those home areas we often fail to pay much attention to when it comes to cleaning the house, unlike the floors, bathrooms, furniture etc which get cleaned weekly. Somehow we just close our shades and forget about our screens.
Window screens help protect our homes against pests, bugs, dirt, dust, and other unhealthy particles flying around in our environment, which makes them become dirty and unattractive over time. All of this dirt defeats the purpose of the window screen, when it’s really dirty you won’t even get the pure fresh air you want.
Mild Cleaning for Window Screens
Materials needed:
- Lint Brush
- Garden Hose
- Water
This method is applied for screens that only have small traces of dirt on them. In this case, you can start by gently shaking it off if the dirt is so light. But in a case where you can’t get rid of all the dirt by simply shaking, you should make use of your lint brush and lightly brush away any loose dirt from both sides of the screen. Do this a couple of times to make sure that all the dirt is gotten rid of. After that, rinse it well with plenty of water from your garden hose, and allow it dry.
You should now have your screen sparkling like new.
Cleaning Screens Covered with Loose Films of Dirt
Materials needed:
- Hose
- Water
- Soft Scrub Brush
- Vacuum Cleaner
If your window screens are at this stage of dirtiness, shaking or light cleaning might not be enough to totally make it dirt-free. What you need to do first is to get it fully soaked with water to wash off some of the dirt.
Spray the water from top-down slowly and remember to do this to both sides of the screen. Next, use the soft scrub brush to clean off any leftovers. While doing this, remember not to be too hard on the screen so you don’t break it. The best practice is to follow a small circular motion with mild pressure across the entire screen.
Make sure you wash off the scrub brush at regular intervals so you don’t reintroduce dirt to the screen.
Alternatively, you can make use of a vacuum pump instead of a scrub brush. When using a vacuum pump, ensure that the attached brush is a soft one so you don’t damage the screen.
Cleaning Very Dirty Window Screens
Materials needed:
- Towel
- Scrub Brush
- Garden Hose
- Vacuum Cleaner
- Warm Water
- Bucket
- Ammonia Solution
- Sponge
- Unused Toothbrush
Do you clean your windows screens regularly? If not, or maybe you only do so once in a long while, then your screens fall in this group.
As dirt and dust continue to accumulate on the screen, they harden over time and become very difficult to clean. But as discussed earlier, we will offer you all the best tips you need to enable you to clean your window screens faster and easier.
The first thing to do is to use the garden hose and wash away as much dirt as you can. This will leave you with a lesser challenge as you proceed.
Now that you have gotten rid of some of the dirt, the next thing is to prepare a solution of ammonia and warm water in a bucket. Soak a sponge, towel, or soft scrub brush with this solution, then go ahead and employ the gradual circular motion we discussed earlier. Ensure you do this for both sides of the screen top-down.
Occasionally rinse off the towel, sponge, or brush to avoid reintroducing dirt to the screen. If there is still some leftover dirt stuck on the corners, make use of your unused toothbrush to finish them off.
Remember, you can also make use of the vacuum cleaner instead of the sponge or brush, but ensure the attached brush is soft.
Cleaning Dirty Window Screens with Walls of Mud
Materials needed:
- Scrapper
- Ammonia Solution
- Warm Water
- Towel
- Scrub Brush
- Garden Hose
- Vacuum Cleaner
It’s fine to admit that you have never thought of the need to clean your window screen for once. In this case, your window screens undisputably fall into this category of extremely dirty. At this point, you even find it disgusting to touch your window screens, this is how bad it gets.
But don’t worry, we’ve got your back.
To clean this kind of screen, you would require a little more setup and effort.
You can make the process lot easier by first soaking the screen with a solution of ammonia and warm water, about an hour beforehand. This will help soften the accumulated dirt.
Once this is done, hit the screen with your garden hose to wash off any loose dirt. Next, grab your scraper and gently scrape off all the dirt still stuck on. Then, this is the point where you might want to fold the sleeve of your shirt as you would have to use your towel, sponge, or scrub brush to scrub the screen gently from top to down in a circular motion until no dirt is left on it. Rinse it off with plenty of water and allow it to dry.
Now that you have hopefully learned the best way to clean your window screens, try not to allow them to reach the extremely dirty stage before you clean them in order to save time and effort cleaning them. Monitor your window screens regularly and ensure that you clean them the moment you spot little accumulation of dirt or dust. This will not only make your window screens look clean and attractive at all times, but also save you so much stress and time.
