Put Kitchen Tongs To Use With A Cleaning Hack For Sparkling Blinds

It's always satisfying to lock into a dusting groove, jumping from surface to surface in a fluid rhythm to make your home shine. Until you reach the window blinds, that is, and all that momentum plummets. Even though most of us find fulfillment in tidying, window blinds remain one of the home's least-cleaned sections, according to a study from Talker Research commissioned by Bissell. Anybody would love an easier time at this stage of the routine, and with a pair of cooking tongs, you may have just the solution you need!

The sure grip that tongs offer in the kitchen translates perfectly to one of the easiest ways to clean your blinds — just secure soft dusters around each end. When you clamp the tongs on a blind, you have a cloth to lift dirt and dust on both sides at once, effectively cutting the cleaning job in half! For the cleaning heads to put on each tong, you can choose from convenient, practical options, including sponges, rags, or even paper towels. Microfiber cloths, meanwhile, are some of the best materials for this hack due to their dense collections of tiny fibers. The fibers generate an electro-static charge as the cloth moves draws dust, dirt, and even microbes, removing more with each pass than cotton and other alternatives. If you pay attention to how often you should clean your blinds, this can be all you need to make quick work of an otherwise annoying task.

A standard pair of kitchen tongs is ideal for this window blind cleaning hack, as they'll give better coverage than mini-tongs and be less cumbersome than large BBQ styles. Wrap a cleaning cloth tightly around the end of each tong. Use a pair of rubber bands to hold them in place. If you use sponges, position them so the soft side faces in to clean the blinds. Slip on rubber bands to secure them, or cut a slit in one end of the sponge to fit it over the tong like a glove. 

You can also double up your cleaning materials to help improve the results. Wrap the cleaning cloths around the tongs first. Then, wrap the cloths with wet wipes or dryer sheets, securing them with rubber bands, to wipe down your blinds. Wet wipes can help take off stuck-on grime, while dryer sheets will help with dry dusting by adding an anti-static coating, reducing future dust buildup.

Clamp the tongs around the blind, and then simply move the tongs back and forth along the blind to pick up dust and grime on both sides at once. Clean with it dry for weekly tidying, or add a little muscle by spraying the cloths with soap and water or rubbing alcohol, a common solution to cut through dusty blind buildup. You can even use this hack to clean indoor plant leaves, vases, and other dual-sided surfaces.