Cleaning Night Shades
Strings need to be removed
White vinyl backing – wash with dish detergent. Dry immediately.
Fabric front – vacuum, spot w/Chem-Dry, soak and blot rest. Avoid rubbing as the fabric will pill and get fuzzy.
Always keep creased.
Cleaning Day Shades
Strings need to be removed
Vacuum to remove surface dirt
Rub with a DRY special dense beige sponge then vacuum to remove sponge particles.
Spot clean with Chem-Dry and dish detergent. Use toothbrush and OK to mildly rub the fabric
Wipe with soaking wet cloth keeping creases.
Wipe dry with a towel to remove dirty water. Repeat. KEEP CREASED.
Soak by keeping rag on the opposite side to absorb excess wet.
Allow drying before hanging. Keep creased. Barry Levitt 1997 U270
Cleaning Day & Night Shades
Tools:
- Carpet cleaning vacuum-setup for hand tool suction only with a crevice tool
- Small brush and/or soft toothbrush
- Spray bottle of warm/hot water
- Dawn dishwashing soap
- OxyClean crystals
Prep:
Setup carpet cleaning vacuum for hand tool suction only with a crevice tool.
Prepare a clean surface to work flat on. Or cover one with plastic to make sure it is clean.
Vacuum shades first on both sides with a furniture brush to remove any dust or other loose dirt.
When using a carpet cleaner, press shade cloth flat against work surface (this provides better suction and more thorough cleaning)
The below method uses a sequence of cleaning solutions meant to avoid using anything stronger than necessary to clean the stain, thereby reducing the chance of discoloring the fabric. (As always – test shade cloth in an inconspicuous area for color fastness. Then let dry to determine if the tested cleaner will discolor the fabric. This will greatly reduce the chances of damaging your shades.)
Cleaning:
First – (water rinse only)
Spray a little warm/hot Water on stain only. Rub water into stain with small brush or finger.
Vacuum liquid back out of cloth. If this worked, do it several times until the stain is removed and then a couple times more to be sure you got all the foreign material and water caught in the fibers.
Second – (if water didn’t work)
Put a few drops of Dawn in a bowl with a couple of drops of water. Use a small semi-stiff brush (0.25-0.50 ” wide) to mix it into a paste then brush it into the stain for 30 seconds. Vacuum soap back out of cloth. If this worked, do it several times until the stain is removed and then do 3 or more rinse cycles (as above) to remove all foreign material and soap caught in the fibers.
Third – (if water and soap didn’t work)
Mix a small amount of OxyClean crystals in a cup with warm/hot water. Once it activates you will see foaming on top of the mixture. Use a small brush to apply the concentrated solution onto the stain. Work it into the stain with the brush. Wait a couple of minutes for it to bleach the stain. Vacuum solution back out of the cloth. If this worked, do it a couple more times until the stain is removed and then do 3 or more rinse cycles (as above) to remove all foreign material and OxyClean caught in the fibers.
I hope this works as good for you as it did for me, but I cannot guarantee results and no warranty of any kind is expressed or implied in the sharing of this information.
Below are Before and After pics of my stain.
MojaveJoe iRV2 Forum
We cleaned our day/night shades last summer when we restrung a cord.
DW put them in the shower, sprayed them with Scrubbing Bubbles, let them sit a while and then rinsed them. There was an amazing amount of brown crud that ran down the drain.
We laid them out on a picnic table to dry partially folded so as to keep the pleats intact. It took overnight and part of the next day for them to dry completely. Clay L iRV2 Forum
How to Clean Accordion-Pleated Shades
Things You’ll Need
- A vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment
- Micro-fiber towel
- Dish detergent (optional)
Instructions
1. Preventing dust is the most important thing to do with accordion fabric-pleated shades because the way these shades are constructed makes the dust settle in cracks and crevices. This type of shade should be vacuumed weekly. Using the brush attachment, thoroughly vacuum each slat of the shades, starting from the top and working to the bottom. Take care not to crush the fabric pleats with the brush attachment.
While weekly cleaning of both sides of the shades is not necessary, approximately once a month remove the shades from the window and perform the identical vacuuming work to the reverse side of the shades as well.
2. A micro-fiber towel is effective for cleaning pleated shades also. Saturate the micro-fiber towel and then squeeze well to remove as much moisture as possible. Use the dampened towel to wipe each slat of the blinds to remove dust and dirt.
3. Anti-static accordion-pleated shades are much easier to maintain. To keep dust from accumulating, simply use the brush attachment of the vacuum cleaner to remove dust and dirt. Start at the top and vacuum each slat thoroughly. The reverse side of the shades can also be vacuumed from time to time, but this cleaning is not necessary to do each time.
4. Carefully work a small amount of dish detergent into a stubborn stain. Do not scrub so much that the surface of the blinds is damaged. It’s important not to use too much detergent so that rinsing the detergent out is not too difficult. Rinse out the detergent by dabbing lightly at the spot with a cloth saturated in water only. By Kathryn Hatter, eHow Contributor