One of the things I love the most about my house is all the windows.
One of the things I hate the most about my house is all the windows.
Only because of how often they need cleaned. And it's a small fortune to have them done (my last quote was more than $800), especially as often as we should. Thankfully I befriended a local window washer who spilled all the Windex on what he would do if he had my house, and I will share it with you.
Now if you want your windows picture perfect, you will have to look elsewhere. This is the "wham bam, thank you ma'am" of window washing. A "not great, but 100x better than they were before" method that you can use as often as you want. I shoot for once every month (which ends up being once every three months) and have even been known to take my method and my brush over to a friend's house to help her wash her windows in exchange for a glass of white wine together on her porch. #ididworkforwine
If you know a better method, I beg of you to share it. This is the easiest, best method I have come across in the last five years, but I'm always searching for other ways to get the job done.
You are going to need the following items:
A car washing brush, bonus if it extends
A bucket wide enough for the brush to fit into
Water
Palmolive Oxy Clean Degreaser liquid dish soap (exactly this kind)
White vinegar
The key to the "Lazy Lady" method is in the soapy mixture you are going to make. These aren't exact measurements, but you're washing your windows with the "Lazy Lady" method, so just wing it, you'll be fine.
Fill the bucket with warm water, but not a ton, about halfway up, or less, is great.
Add a squirt of the Palmolive dish soap
Add a glug or two of white vinegar
(If you are cleaning your indoor windows, or less windows, and want to be more exact, he mentioned filling your bucket with two inches of warm water, adding five capfuls of white vinegar and a little Palmolive to the bucket and mixing it up. Then you will be using your squeegee and towel to clean your windows the good, old fashioned way.)
Okay...you've got your mixture and all your supplies and this is where the fun and easy part comes in. You literally just...
Hose off your windows
Use your car wash brush and scrub on the soapy mixture
Rinse off your windows with the hose
That's it! Apparently the vinegar helps it dry without leaving water spots. You can obviously totally squeegee them for an even better result, but this is for those of us with French windows, a lot of windows, or who just don't want to spend all day washing windows. Again, this isn't perfect, but if you are okay with good and not great, you've just washed your windows within 10 minutes.
How's this for "Lazy Lady"? I even do it right through the screens!
This is also THE BEST method when your foliage is fully grown, but the windows still need cleaned!
A couple of other tidbits the kind window washing man gave me...
Get a Don Aslett Squeegee and sponge (I haven't done this yet)
Use a fresh blade to scrape off any paint
Use Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner for hard water stains on windows (wear gloves for this)
Make sure your blade on your squeegee is new and don't put too much pressure on it
Wipe your squeegee off with a towel or paper towel in between each time you use it.
A friend mentioned that using newspaper works well to clean windows and not make them streaky. I personally haven't tried yet, but I'm intrigued.
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