How to Best Clean Window Shutters

Posted on 10/12/2015

Tips for Cleaning Window Shutters

Decorative or functional, it does not matter. Your window shutters need attention just like everything else in your house when you go home cleaning. You can give them some attention even when you are only busy with window cleaning. Keeping the exterior shutters immaculate will give your home a nice visual from the outside, and it will keep dirt from heaping up on the shutters and being blown inside whenever you open the windows. Maintenance is always in order, so roll up your sleeves and explore the various ways to do your shutter cleaning. And interior shutters will gain by not gathering too much dust which will be blown into the room every time the shutter is in motion. And here are the best ways to deal with your shutters’ cleanliness.

Wooden Shutters
Let’s start with maintenance. To keep the shutters dust-free, you need either some kind of duster, or a dusting cloth. If you use that on your shutters at least once a week, they will be constantly clean and you will not have to put any effort into thoroughly cleaning them even when you are doing spring cleaning.

For the cleaning itself, you will have to use your vacuum cleaner. Make sure you have an attachment with a soft brush so that you don’t damage anything while taking care of the dust. Use an all purpose cleaner to clean any remaining stains that should not be on the surface, and then you need wood polish. Apply the polish and use an old toothbrush to apply the layer all over the shutters. After that simply wait for the polish to dry out and your shutters will be clean till you start neglecting them again. Also, a fair warning: don’t use soap water as it might warp the wood.

Vinyl Shutters
The maintenance tips are the same. After all, the best way to clean something is by preventing it from ever getting dirty.

The cleaning should start the same way as the wood shutters – by removing all the gathered dirt and dust with a soft brush-ended vacuum cleaner. After that, you need a mixture of water and dish soap. Dampen a cloth or a sponge with the mixture and then carefully wipe the shutters. After that, take a second cloth, damp it into clean water and rinse the shutters. And lastly, take a dry cloth and dry them out so that you don’t risk any potential warping. If the shutters have any bendy parts or crevices which you cannot reach with the cloth, use a toothbrush.

Exterior Shutters
The maintenance of exterior shutters should not be as frequent as their counterparts. Doing it every week would be too toilsome, so you might as well do it whenever you are having a full house cleaning.

Dusting or vacuuming first is out of the questions, so instead you need to wash out the dirt and dust from your shutters. A pressure washer should be perfect for the job, but if you don’t have one, then simply use a wet brush of any kind and scrape away. After that, take either the same or another brush and dip in a mixture of water and dish soap to soap up the shutters’ surface. After you are done, either use the pressure washer again for rinsing, or use a watered brush.

Use these techniques to completely conquer the dust that could reach your shutters. Maintenance is the key to easy cleaning, but you should always be prepared to know what to do even if you neglect cleaning the shutters for too long. The worst thing you can get on them is mildew, and this can be quickly solved with a mixture of water and bleach. Other than that, simply follow the instructions above and you will have no trouble with your window cleaning and keeping the shutters immaculate.