With a “to do list” about a mile long for our new house I finally got around to cleaning all the gunk out of our windowsills yesterday and let me tell you Bob, it was totally overdo. The grossest part is that I knew it was mostly other people dirty–not ours, which kind of made it worse.
The window sills are a piece of cake. You really just need a bucket of hot soapy water {just a few drops of dish soap will work great} and a clean cloth. Dip the cloth into the water and wipe down all of the sills. Pretty technical stuff.
For the window tracks, you’ll need to lose your gag reflex, the vacuum, some q-tips, a spray bottle of white vinegar, and paper towels. Start by throwing on the brush attachment to your vacuum cleaner. Vacuum all that you can out of the tracks. Then, spray down the tracks with vinegar.
Let it sit for a minute and loosen up the unidentified grime that, in the case of my house, had been collecting since 1992, give or take. Then wipe as much of the loosened gunk out with a paper towel. Scrunch your nose up in disgust. Re-spray if necessary. Now, grab the q-tip and start swiping all of those hard to reach areas. The end of the q-tip will start to collect quite a bit of gunkity gunk, so be prepared to go through several.
As you loosen, you can use a clean paper towel to swipe over what the q-tip leaves behind. This is one of those tedious repeat until clean processes.
The good news is that now all you have to do is maintain it. The bad news is that now all you have to do is maintain it. Maintenance is such high maintenance. Still, it feels good to know that next time, it will be our own private gross-ness.
~Mavis
sindy says
This is so weird. I was just doing this exact thing today. I just stopped to take a lunch break and saw your post. You are right it is gross!!! I wish they wouldn’t get so yucky. Thanks Mavis for all your posts. I love your blog.
Krista says
We moved into a rental about 5 years ago and while the landlords said it had been cleaned, I can tell you that their idea of clean and mine are about as far apart as A to Z. I spent weeks scrubbing things that should have been done on a weekly basis by the previous tenants. It really shocked me how filthy this place was and how the landlord’s didn’t see fit to have a proper cleaning crew come in here before we moved in. Simple things like light switches had grime in them like your window tracks. The window tracks were disgusting, the spindle in the washing machine had NEVER been lifted out and cleaned (I still gag thinking about it), but I think the worst were the heating vents. The things we found down in there are unspeakable. *shudders*
KAte says
We moved into a rental once that I though had a beige fridge. You know how much they loved color enamel on their appliances in the 80’s! Nope, it was a white fridge buried under 20 years of nicotine deposits. SO GROSS! I hauled the whole thing out into the sunlight (Sunlight is one of the best thing to kill germy germs.) and spent the next three days scrubbing the whole thing down inside and out.
We also washed all the walls and the ceilings. It was only a temporary place, we were there for only 6 months while we waited for another place to open up, but I couldn’t live with the grossness. When we left, the landlords actually gave us more than our cleaning deposit back. I took before and after pictures and they were so stunned. They said they usually paid a service $500 to come in and clean (it was a small place) before new renters and sine they’d budget to pay it, they just paid it to us. BONUS!
Wynne says
Wow! It sounds like you deserved the cash. Very cool landlords to own up to it.
Lori N. says
I use an old toothbrush & a few microfiber cloths. Gets to those little nooks & crannies without the frustration of the q-tips.
Julie says
Baby wipes work well too!
Kevin Wilson says
Ditto on the toothbrush for most of the track. Doesn’t get in to corners very well, though, so I’ll have to try the Q-tips next time.
Tina B says
I second those who said to use a toothbrush. That works well for most all but the corners, and you don’t spend so much $$ on q-tips, too. Although the dollar store non-Q-Tip brand will work effectively enough in this case, rather than wasting the good quality stuff on such a nasty chore.
What always gets me is how terribly dirty my home’s doors get above and below the doorknobs from opening and closing the doors. We use the knob to open, obviously, but it looks like everyone grabs the door itself to close it, rather than the knob. I seem to be the only one who is bothered by how icky that gets to looking, and since I clean it, I’m the one who now grabs the knobs only, no matter which direction I’m heading–in or out.
It is amazing how much filth we accumulate in our own homes, isn’t it? Blech!
Jeanette Titov says
Good tips , but for future articles like these, please post an advisory or warning! I was having my lunch at the computer and reading while eating! LOL
KAte says
HA! Come on, we all know how much Mavis loves her camera!
There are bound to be pictures in a cleaning post.
Mavis Butterfield says
Or a petrified rat in a kitchen post. 🙂
Pat Marino says
I’ve used old pastry brushes (never to be used again for baking – ugh) and even small paintbrushes for tiny areas. Works pretty well!
Judy says
for cleaning windowsills and the grooves, I use a small, cheap paintbrush, a toothbrush & a plastic knife wrapped with a rag to run inside the grooves. In the corners where there is some crusted build up, I use a nail tip to tease out the crud. Q-tips, IMHO, don’t do the job well enough.
For washing windows, my solution is vinegar, water & a tiny bit of dishwashing detergent. Some people recommend adding rubbing alcohol
Mavis says
A nail tip for the hard to reach spots seems like a great idea! I’ll give that a try!