Cleaning

I just mentioned it as a preliminary measure -- I absolutely do not know the first thing about keeping blinds clean if my last apt was any indication. There's a lady named Rita out there who is telling her friends how disgusting I am, I'm sure of it. In fact, that's part of what started this whole "I need to step up my cleaning game" ordeal. I wish window coverings weren't so vexing!

vinyl blinds is what I spent my Saturday cleaning with the vacuum cleaner. but I have a small one in the bathroom that's super greased-on gross. I'm planning on soaking it in the bathtub next weekend (have never tried this method) -- ENBB if you like I'll report back!

mr veg swears by garden hose, detergent and a broom, but I can't see what good cold water is going to do.

(ie taking them outside and doing them on the back lawn)

In case you didn't know: DO NOT MIX BLEACH AND AMMONIA. It creates ammonia gas, and that is toxic. Jesus.

xp - LL, don't be too hard on yourself. Even if you're as messy as you are saying, it's not a character flaw. And in person, you come across as a tidy, efficient, stylish, and clean person.

Seriously, if you're going to clean blinds, that gadget is the only sane way.

FOR THE GREASY KITCHEN BLINDS: USE AMMONIA. It is the best (and cheapest) degreaser ever. Let them soak in HOT water and ammonia and then use that multi-brush thing Jesse posted.

I am not absolutely sure if you're supposed to soak the header of the blinds in water? You know, the rectangular box at the top where the mechanism is. Unless someone else says it's okay to submerge it...?

That's good for dusting, but there's a point when they get beyond dusty into straight up grimy. I don't think that thing would take care of that.

xp

Curtains are way way easier than all this shit, btw. When they're dirty, you just take them down and put 'em in the wash and hang them up damp. Hit with a steamer if you really hate the wrinkles, otherwise say "fuck it" and leave them alone.

Oh is that thing just a feather duster? Never mind, then. I thought it was a scrub brush like.

It's a washer. You put it in soapy water and wash the blinds with it.

xp re the defamation of The Gadget

oh god, my new apartment has all dingy vinyl blinds on every window, awful, i makes me want to BLIND myself haha get it no seriously gonna get oedipal

I'm feeling totally neurotic about this -- it's true! I also have some longstanding issues wrt homes, cleanliness, order, and people pointing and laughing at me. Trying to take control of the situation and genuinely tcb is more of a general life goal for me than something I'm doing to evade shame/something I'm doing out of fear. I also want to take care of my new living area out of general respect for it and the people/animals who live there.

Take those fuckers DOWN! Down with your blinds!

Cheap white vinyl blinds and contractor grade cabinetry is what bums me out the most about being a renter.

also i have hired someone to clean the apartment i just moved out of because fuck it

I didn't grow up with blinds, I didn't really even know what they were? In 1997 I visited NY for the first time in my adult life, and somewhere in Hoboken we passed a sign that said "Blind Cleaners" and I spent days wondering whether they were offering to clean your blind people or offering the cleaning services OF blind people and finally dismissed it as a weird error. It took me YEARS to realize.

I grew up with roller blinds and miniblinds took on this aura of being smart and lovely.

every few months I go through this whole process of 'I'm going to get rid of these blinds' and then I look into ooh yes curtains and then it's just, every window in the house is a different width - 3 windows in the living room all look the same to the naked eye but they're all slightly off...and then ooh what color curtains and oh are they thick enough and do I need lining and maybe I need sheers and even doing it cheaply the process becomes a LOT more expensive than I bank on every time

I would love plain old roller blinds and sheers but again, it's just kind of a nightmare trying to put my arms around getting it done.

which is what led me to just cleaning the blinds I have. I figure even if I hate them, at least if they look presentable it'll bring up the rooms a little. and it has. so far.

I am not defending them now, only explaining how I came to think of them as quite all right.

xp

I just can't spend a whole lot of money right now, so I'm going with "make the best of what I have" at the moment.

Totally. carl won't mock you when we come visit.

i blame the USA network's 1980s late night dramas that made us think that peering through miniblinds was sexy and dangerous

You guys have got me side eyeing my (blue!) kitchen blinds now but I don't know if I can be bothered. Also the cord is frayed and the things don't work 100% correctly anymore. If I break them then the neighbours will see right in and then I won't feel free to prance around in underpants.

nail up a sheet over the window, it's worth it

I don't have any fabric that matches and is thick enough to hide us from the neighbours. Our windows are about three feet apart with the sinks underneath, it gets awkward. One day I'll go and buy some fabric just for this task.

Get some textured clear window clings then, if u want light with privacy. Possibly even just put them on the bottom half of the window?

I would love plain old roller blinds and sheers but again, it's just kind of a nightmare trying to put my arms around getting it done.

this was me for the last 10 years. meanwhile, my blinds were getting grosser and grosser. to carl and io's credit, neither of them mocked me when they came over to my home. i just don't want to feel like this anymore!

textured clear window clings
some what?

oh, those are great! they are indispensible for 1st floor apartment dwellers

Removable plastic films with an embossed texture that you smooth onto windows to make them not transparent.

i understand what the words mean, but what are they called? where do you get them?

window clings, or window film -- you can get them at hardware stores, I think ikea even sells some

LL, like this kind of thing:
http://www.notmartha.org/images/other/designsponge/windowfilm/strossel_geranium.jpg

not as twee obv

http://www.lighteffects.com/

ok see i have never seen such a thing! ty

those are pretty!!

we just had plain frosted vinyl ones on the lower panes of our windows and they were really just indispensable especially since our apartment didn't get barely any light. we never had a bathroom curtain, on the 1st floor even! so i will vouch for their privacy.

Ftr I barely even noticed the blinds at your house, you crazy person, I was totally focused on hanging out with you. I was super jealous of all your sunlight though.

Uh that's to Lechera.

I hadn't thought of window clings! that would be a better solution for the bathroom come to think of it

xp - but they were really gross, and i knew it :(

i'm totally gonna look into those -- do you cut to size? are they really totally removable? do they look chintzy? i swear people keep coming up with stuff that looks like 1000x better than i expect it to.

i grew up with curtains and had some ridiculous lacey ones in my childhood bedroom so i have this silly longstanding affection for lace curtains. i even made some when i first moved into my own apt long ago. i washed them and they were easy to care for.

we also don't have the peeper issue in our new place that we had in our old place. strangers on the train could look directly into my bedroom window if i hadn't had complete opacity. it's sad that i never knew about those clings before now -- could have saved lots of time and energy feeling shitzoid about my nasty blinds.

they are cut to size, yes. and they come right off with no film or residue. i can't speak for any of the patterened ones as i just had the frosted ones -- personally i would be suspect of the ones that have stained-glass affectations

yeah that's why i asked if they were chintzy -- no offense to chintz, of course!

i've becomed so accustomed to having them i think i should put them in the new bathroom, lest i become careless and give the neighbors an eyeful

LL just make sure you get non-adhesive ones, like the kind in Orbit's link

there are adhesive ones also but def def not advised for renters as removal can be tricky

yeah i mean the last time i bought contact paper, it was hella sticky
(it was also like 20 yrs ago)

in other news, i decided to line my fridge with plastic (like this little roll of thin plastic sheeting?) so that i could just clean that instead of stressing about getting stuff on my fridge.

i saw some one direction duct tape
maybe i'll just cover the windows with that

If I were doing a room with a sort of gypsy/romantic feel I would buy a 2nd hand table cloth with the deepest crocheted lace edge I could find, fold it in half diagonally, and drape it over an iron rod as a drapery with the crochet hanging all along the edge in deep folds. And then pin or baste it into position at the backs of the folds where it was hidden.

That is for the dept of interior design thread tho.

i think part of my prob with all of this is that i need pictures
words aren't really helping me

ilx is the best place for these discussions! i'm already inspired!