Lint-free cotton cloths, microfiber towels, untreated paper towels, newspaper or old, clean cloth diapers work great.Be sure to use enough Windex® product to remove all the dirt and change cleaning towels as they become soiled. Cleaning windows on a cloudy day works best.
If your dishes smell like dish soap after you clean them, they have a residue of soap on them. That residue could be visible on your windows. Use a window washing solution to avoid that. Window washing solution is typically a concentrated liquid that is meant to be mixed with water for the purpose of washing windows.
It's often recommended to spray the window cleaner directly on your microfiber cloth, newspaper, or t-shirt instead of the glass. The reason is that this will help you avoid drips that can leave streaks if you don't wipe them up quickly. You also need to be more careful with windows and mirrors with wood frames.
So, whether you're out of your usual glass cleaner or you're just looking for a cheaper option, white vinegar can work wonders on your windows and mirrors. Mix it up with warm water (again, soft or distilled H20 for best results) at a 50/50 ratio.
A big problem is the evaporation rate. If you're cleaning your windows on a warm sunny day, the liquid part of the solution evaporates quickly and leaves behind a residue that appears as streaks. On the other hand, if you don't entirely remove the liquid you can also be left with a streaky window.
To avoid drips and evaporation, spray Windex® Glass Cleaner on large windows in sections, wiping away the cleaning solution before moving on to the next portion.
Pro cleaners use squeegees inside all the time, even in houses with stained and varnished woodwork. When cleaning windows with a squeegee indoors, the key is to squeeze most of the soapy water out of the scrubber to eliminate excessive dripping and running.
The safest cleaner for a mirror is clean, warm water used with a soft cloth. An approved glass cleaner such as Windex or similar products may be used.
This easy clean comes in a blue bottle: Windex cleans all types of outdoor furniture, including aluminum, resin, plastic, and glass pieces. Just lightly mist the surface, let stand for a few minutes, and wipe clean.
Bathroom Cleaner
It's useful for tubs and showers, sinks, stone counter spaces, tile floors, and the toilet. Spraying Windex inside your toilet bowl and letting it sit similar to a stain will clean it just like any toilet cleaner, it might even work better on tough staining than a normal toilet bowl cleaner.
Don't leave the streak-free shine behind when you reach for a multi-surface cleaner that kills 99.9% of germs‡, viruses^, and bacteria† on hard, non-porous surfaces.
The cleaning instructions for fog-free mirrors from Home Decorators Collection say to use “a generous amount” of window cleaner, and they mention Windex, Zep Streak-Free Glass Cleaner and HDX Glass Cleaner.
Mix one cup distilled water, three tablespoons vinegar, and ¼ cup rubbing alcohol in a new spray bottle and label it. Shake up your glass cleaning solution and spray it on your glass. Work from top to bottom and wipe down your window or mirror with a microfiber cloth.
“Windex is comprised of several very harsh and irritating ingredients, including fragrances, dyes and ammonia, as well as very powerful detergents and solvents.” Because of its disinfecting properties, Bowe explained, the cleaning solution will also kill off the skin's healthy bacteria.
Cleaning Windows from the Outside
Start by rinsing the windows with the hose, then fill a bucket with clean, cool water and add a few drops of liquid dish soap. Using a soft microfiber cloth, go over the surface of the window. For higher windows, use a sponge mop (or a soft cotton or microfiber mop) on a pole.
Mix one part distilled vinegar to 10 parts warm water in a spray bottle. Wipe down the window with a a soft, clean, lint-free microfiber cloth or paper towel to remove dust before you spray your solution, then spray the entire surface.
Green Living, from National Geographic, recommends this simple recipe, plus a few extra tips for the best window cleaning outcome. In a spray bottle, mix 50% distilled vinegar (white) and 50% tap water. For extremely grimy glass, prewash with very soapy water, then go to the vinegar spray.
The key ingredient in Windex is ammonia. This harsh chemical features just the right amount of abrasion to remove stains from glass and windows without harming the surface itself. Tricky stains such as tape residue, sticker glue and cigarette smoke are no match for the power of ammonia.
Windex Disinfectant Multi-Surface Cleaner Kills Germs. Windex says their Disinfectant Multi-Surface Cleaner, which looks yellow in the bottle, kills 99.9% of germs, including viruses and bacteria, on hard, non-porous surfaces.
In some applications Windex is the way to go. But for most professionals they use a much simpler window cleaning solution. We recommend you skip the windex and instead use a pro mixture of dishwashing liquid and water.
While you might think that a simple spray removes all, not properly treating these spots is the leading cause of streaks—when you go to wipe down the rest of the mirror with a clean or solution-sprayed cloth, the greasy or oily residue just spreads across the surface of the glass with each sweeping motion.
A. Some commercial glass cleaners contain wax, which can leave a streaky residue. Washing windows on a sunny day or using hot water can also cause streaks, because the cleaner dries too quickly on the windows.
Just mix a half vinegar and half water solution in a spray bottle (If you've got hard water, consider using distilled water to clean your mirror so that it won't leave a residue!), spray it onto a microfiber cloth and then apply to the reflective surface.