Don?t Leave Your Blinds Hanging - Vertical Blinds Cleaning Tips

Are constantly fighting off dust in the battle to keep your home fresh and clean? Do you feel like your losing the battle against grease and grime? What does your home say about you? Household cleaning is a regular, ongoing and everyday job. It can seem never ending and is often thankless. Dirty blinds and stained carpets can really make your home un welcoming. One of the biggest jobs is cleaning your vertical blinds. These are important because they present your house both inside and out. These simple vertical blind cleaning tips will help you keep on top of the cleaning.

Vertical blinds can be a nightmare to clean but if left to gather dust and cobwebs they are a nightmare to look at. You need to dust them regularly as you do the rest of your home. Use a duster that will lift the dust right off the blinds rather than just move it around. Other vertical blind cleaning tips that have proven effective include. Using a dust or enzyme spray, use a dust spray to loosen and remove dust from blinds and other hard to reach places. For extensive cleaning which you may like to do once a month with vertical blinds you need to take them down. Depending on material you may only need to vacuum the blinds. You can also soak, scrub and rinse blinds to remove stains. Soak vertical blinds in the bathtub or rinse them outside with hose after cleaning. Use your own home remedy or professional cleaning supplies.

You can use your own household solutions or vertical blind cleaning tips for cleaning blinds but it is also a good idea to use professional cleaning supplies. You can use a soft cloth to wipe down your blinds after soaking or a brush to scrub away excess dirt. If you want to leave them hanging during cleaning you can use a duster, dust cloth, spray or vacuum. Most fabrics will clean up relatively easily and may only require a regular dusting. If your blinds are looking a bit worse for wear just use some of these vertical blinds cleaning tips.

For other tricky cleaning endeavours use some of the best household cleaning tips to make the job a little easier. You will find you have much of what you need already on hand in your home. A number of areas require special attention in your housecleaning efforts. If you focus on these specific areas your home will sparkle and you will be able to notice the difference. Some of the main areas that need extra attention are carpets, kitchen and bathroom. These areas if left to fester will really affect the outlook of your home. With a little care and cleaning they can brighten up the household.

The best household cleaning tips for general carpet cleaning are; use professional cleaning supplies that suit your carpet type and fabric for general cleaning and stain removal. You can use a number of general household cleaning products to remove various substances that may get on your carpet. Windex is helpful for removing paint. For marker or pen marks you can use a cloth soaked in alcohol to remove the stain, dab do not rub. For liquid spills or pet urine first soak up the liquid with paper towels then clean the area with warm soapy water. Rinse with clean water and dry. You can also use a combination of water and vinegar to blot the stain, remember to rinse and dry before sprinkling with baking soda or carpet deodoriser. The other option for stains on carpet or for general cleaning is a professional carpet cleaner.

The best household cleaning tips for your kitchen are also the simplest. The kitchen is the one place in the house that needs constant attention. For hygiene and health reasons it is always best to go with the proven professional cleaning supplies. Dusting is the first step and you can use either a spray or handheld duster. Use professional cleaning supplies for oven cleaning, surfaces and dishes.

The bathroom is susceptible to all kinds of cleaning nightmares. The best household cleaning tips for bathrooms are regularity and professional cleaning. Professional cleaning supplies such as disinfectant, toilet, shower and floor cleaners are a must when it comes to keeping your bathroom germ free.

So with these vertical blinds cleaning tips making hard jobs easy and the best household cleaning tips you will find you will have extra time in your life to do the things your really enjoy.

by Vincent Platania. Fuller Brush Products In business since 1906, Fuller Brush has been offering families high-quality household products for nearly a century. Fuller Brush natural cleaning products are environmentally friendly. Visit http://www.fuller-brush-products.com

Making Roman Blinds For Your Bedroom

Roman blinds can add a nice look to any bedroom and you can give them a custom touch by making them in fabric to match your bedding or other d?cor in the room. These blinds are basically a panel of fabric with laths encased in channels and cording to draw up the lathes so it simply takes a bit of sewing know how to make them.

When selecting material for your blinds, go with something that is a medium weight and match the colors to those in your bedroom.

Here's what you need:

Medium weight fabric Curtain lining fabric 1/2" wood laths 2 X 1 wood batton to fit across the window Plastic rings Angle brackets Screw eyes Nylon cord Tools such as a square, ruler, pencil, staple gun, cleat and screws

First, measure the window height and width from inside the casing. Cut the roman blinds material 2 ?" wider and 4" longer than that measurement. Cut the curtain lining fabric the same width as the blinds fabric and 2" longer.

Now you need to decide how many pleats or the size of the pleats. Typically, a roman blind has 6" pleats so you'll want to divide the length of your fabric - 4" by 12 since 6" pleats would have the channels spaced 12" apart. So, if you are making roman blinds for a window that is 48", you should have cut the fabric to 52" (since you added 4" to the measurement). Then you have to divide the original 48" by 12 (the size of each channel) for a total of 4. So you will have 4 pleats in your blinds.

Mark the lining 1 ?" up from the bottom edge with a hem line and 2" down from the top edge. To mark your channels for the roman blinds, make 2 lines spaced 2 ?" apart starting 6" above the hem line. After you make the first set of line, measure up another 12" and make another set, again spaced 2 ?" apart. Form the channels by bringing the 2 lines together, pinning them and then sewing them to form the channel for the lath.

To assemble the roman blind, put the blind fabric and lining with right sides facing each other and lower edges matching. Stitch the lower edges together. Turn right side out and sew across the blind at the hem line. Pin the lining and roman blind fabric together along the channels and stitch them together. Baste and stitch the sides together, making sure not to stitch up the channels.

To make the pleats in the roman blinds, slip the laths into the channels and slip stitch the openings. Sew the plastic rings on the lining 4" in from the ends of the laths on each side. Cut the 2 pieces of nylon cord twice the length of the blind plus the width. Tie a cord onto each of the bottom rings and thread up through the rest of the rings to the top of the roman blinds and let hang loose.

Now you can hang your masterpieces! Attach the top part to the batton (you can use a staple gun). Now put the angle brackets at the top of the window and attach the batton to the brackets. Attach a screw eye to the batton on each side above the rows of plastic rings. Thread the loose cord through the screw eyes and over to the right side of the window. Slip a lath into the very bottom of the blind to finish it off.

Viola! Now you have custom Roman blinds for your bedroom!

Lee Dobbins writes for several decorating sites including Bedroom Designs And Decorating .com where you can learn more about making your own blinds.