Here’s an easy way to clean your blinds without taking them down.

It’s officially spring, and that means it’s time to start spring cleaning. While we like to have a clean house all year long, spring is the time when we usually clean a little more thoroughly. It’s about moving furniture around and getting out the step ladder to reach places that are usually hidden or too difficult to maintain on a regular basis.

One of the items that is always on our spring cleaning list is cleaning the windows, but after cleaning them inside and out, we realize that the window coverings need to be cleaned as well.

If you have curtains in your home, they are probably fairly easy to clean. Many curtains are machine washable, but check the labels on yours to make sure. Even if they are machine washable, they may need to be air dried. Since they are curtains, this is pretty easy to manage.

If your window coverings are blinds, you’re going to have to get your hands dirty. There’s no machine that will wash them for you, but the good news is that you can leave them hanging while you clean them. Yes, one way to clean them is to take them down and give them a bath, but that’s probably too much for most situations.

Clean My Space tells us how easy it is to clean our blinds while they are hanging. It doesn’t matter if your blinds are vertical or horizontal. These steps apply to both types of blinds.

First, you need to dust the blinds. You can use a microfiber cloth, a duster specifically designed for blinds, or even a gym sock that you wear like a puppet.

Once the blinds are dusted, the next step is to clean them. Simply pour hot water into a large bowl or bucket and add 3 drops of dishwashing liquid. Yes, you are going to clean your blinds with dishwashing liquid.

Dip your microfiber cloth into the soapy mixture, wring it out and wipe down one blind slat at a time, starting at the top. If you have vertical blinds or very high windows, you may need to use a step ladder to reach the top of the blind.

These steps work for all blinds except fabric blinds. You will need to disassemble fabric blinds to clean them.