Stop wasting your hard earned money on commercial glass cleaners. Although these cleaners will clean glass, many of them work just as well as plain tap water from your kitchen sink. As an alternative, you can make this easy recipe that cleans faster and better. Ounce per ounce this simple recipe is, at least, five times cheaper. Besides being kinder on the environment, this glass cleaner leaves your house smelling great.
It is a worldwide myth that using a mixture of vinegar and water is a good window cleaner. Besides not smelling good, this mixture tends to leave streaks, requires more stokes and will dry out your hands. And, glass wipes are pricy and tend to dry out fast once the package is opened. In addition to dealing with the solid waste of commercial glass cleaning containers, these glass cleaners may contain phosphorus.
A word of caution, if you do use a commercial glass cleaner, especially ones containing ammonia, be sure to not allow it to sit on painted or vanished surfaces. Over time, these cleaners can soften and lift the paint from the surface of the wood. Some cleaners choose to omit this warning on their labels.
Here is the world’s best recipe: mix 1/2 gallon of warm tap water, 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and a tablespoon of rubbing alcohol. For dirt that is caked on outside windows or greasy handprints, you can add a few drops of dishwashing detergent and a ¼ cup of sudsy ammonia to this mixture. This cleaner can be used in a spray bottle (the one that held your store brought stuff) and keeps for months.
If you good at using a rubber blade squeegee and a lambswool T-bar strip washer, they will work just fine with this home brew cleaner. A natural sea wool sponge works very well for absorbing the water that remains on the window frames and sills. The lambswool washers and sea wool sponges are available at most home improvement stores. They are a very good investment, especially for cleaning outside windows.
Forget the advice you read about using newspapers to clean and dry your windows. The only result is that you have is a pile of wet newspapers and dirty hands. Cotton cloths (that have not been washed or dried with fabric softener) and paper towels work the best with any type of glass cleaner.
