Cleaning blinds the easy way

I am one of those people with a heightened sense of smell and do everything I can to keep things clean and fresh around the house.  One of the things that used to take me a lot of time were the blinds.  I remember when I was younger walking around the house with 2 different buckets (one with wash water and one with rinse water) and a rag to clean the blinds.  It would literally take me an entire day because I would wipe each slat separately.  Crazy!  Crazier still is that I did this on my own without my mom ever even asking me to do it.  : )

Thankfully I have come up with a much more efficient way to do this.  All you need are a bath tub, laundry detergent, and a large towel.  Simply take your blinds out of the holder and take them to the bath tub.  I use the shower sprayer to do an initial rinse to remove dust.  (Be careful with metal parts as they can rust.)  Then put the drain plug down, add some hot water and some laundry detergent.  (I put about an inch of water in the tub.)  Make sure the detergent is mixed thoroughly with the water.  Now you just need to place the blinds in the water.  I normally let it soak for about 10 minutes and then I pick up the blinds and rotate 180 degrees b/c there is more water in the bath tub by the drain.  This ensures that both sides of the blinds are in the solution.

After soaking, simply drain the water and rinse the blinds.  Place the blinds on the towel and remove as much water as possible.  I don't stress about completely drying the blinds, but I like them dry enough where I am not leaving a dripping water trail throughout the house.  Now just hang up your blinds and wipe excess water away.  Super easy!

I do this about every month or two.  The blinds in the bathrooms seem to be the worst, but I am sure that has something to do with my hair products.  This method is easy, doesn't leave dirty water spots, and removes odors that may attach to the blinds.