The Best Window Cleaner ever.
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I’m happy to be sharing The Best Homemade Window Cleaner with you. It has won us over. After years of filmy residue, we can see clearly now. The film is gone.
For years and years, we battled trying to get the exterior of our windows clean. They just never looked crystal clear. A filmy residue and often chalky streaks would remain once the windows dried. We tried a variety of window cleaners from homemade to store bought concoctions, as well as using newspaper instead of paper towels with not much success.
That all changed when we learned about the best exterior window cleaner ever.
We had been working on updating a bathroom and ordered some new mirrors. While the glass guys were here installing the mirror, my husband, Randy, got to chatting with them, as he usually does, about how their business was going. During their conversation he happened to ask them what they use for cleaning glass. Did they have any professional tips or tricks? Yes, they did!
They shared a simple recipe for what they have found to work. They swore by it. We had already tried just using a simple combination of vinegar and water, but they learned a trick from a commercial window cleaner: add a little dish detergent to the vinegar/water mixture. Really? That simple? It was new to us, and it sounded much too easy.
So we tried it (or should I say Randy tried it) right away. Randy set out just to test a few windows and the next thing I knew he had worked all the way around the house, and was already working on some of the upstairs windows as well. There was an immediate difference, and so much easier than what we had tried in the past.
It was so bright inside we had to wear shades. I crack myself up.
The mixture below, is super simple and used with a soft bristle brush and hose. That’s it. No more piles of used paper towels, no ladders, just clarity. I’m planning on trying the same mixture on all kinds of things outside that need de-grungifying.
Keeping the shades on. The future is definitely gonna be brighter around here, y’all. Happy cleaning!
How to Make The Best Window Cleaner
The Best Window Cleaner
This simple mixture will help wash exterior windows to a sparkly clean.
Materials
- 2 cups water
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon dish detergent
Tools
- bucket
- scrub brush
- optional extension pole
- water hose
- optional sprayer attachment
Instructions
- Combine water, white vinegar and dish detergent in a bucket. Increase amounts as needed.
- Using a soft bristle scrub brush on an extension pole handle thingy, dip the brush in a bucket of the solution, and scrub it on the window.
- Before it has a chance to dry, spray/rinse it off with clean water. Be sure to rinse thoroughly. A hose fitted with a sprayer attachment is helpful.
Notes
The solution could be made and used in a spray bottle, but we found working on lots of windows, the bucket and scrub brush worked great.
To avoid the need for a ladder (because ladders are the most dangerous tool in the box) Randy used an all-purpose extension pole with a threaded end that enables you to attach different brushes, rollers, etcetera. (Similar to this one.)
Use a soft bristle scrub brush. A sponge mop may also work.
This definitely works for outside windows, where you can safely rinse with water. I have yet to try it indoors, but if you do, make sure you can rinse with plenty of water. Perhaps one spray bottle of solution, and a separate spray bottle of clean water?
Again, be sure to rinse thoroughly, and before the solution has a chance to dry on window. It’s helpful to avoid windows directly in the sun, so they are not hot and don’t as quickly.
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WOW is all I can say!! My windows have never looked so sparkly. Thank you, thank you. On another note for a tip for those with 2nd floor windows. I have a cab over raised bungalow which has my master bedroom over the garage. To find a long enough pole and still using a ladder was not easy as I am very short…. However, I improvised using a golf ball retriever that golfers use to get their golf balls out of water hazards. I broke off the end part and attached a squeegee/lambswool type window cleaning system I purchased a few years ago that slide onto the extension pole it came with. The pole is not long enough to reach a 2nd floor window. The golf ball retriever pole is. 😉
We just remodeled and I did not want to buy commercial mirror and glass cleaners. I used Palmolive for the soap in the recipe. I thought a clear water rinse would be required for interior mirrors and glass, but not the case. Just a little spritz on the mirror, wipe with a dry cloth, and the mirror and glass is smudge free and clear. Thank you, Amy.
Thank u soo much! You showed me how to reduce the time i spend cleaning outside windows from 3 hours to 45minutes. This worked really well. I did it on a 75degree, slightly overcast day at 6pm, sun strong but c;louds coming in.;
Thank goodness I found your blog. I did our outside windows yesterday (yes, on the Fourth of July!) and today I’m working on the inside ones. When you said my windows would be “film free” and “streak free,” I thought, Yeah, right. But Yeah, right!!! Your solution works. I love that it’s a home concocted recipe, and I love not using all those paper towels. I have already experimented on the inside windows putting old bath towels on the sills to catch the dripping water, and the results are quite amazing. The window panes almost look like there’s no glass there. So clear! I will be doing our windows this way from now on, and will be telling my friends. Thank you so much.
Every thing is to the point, and that was really appreciated. Nice work done……
hello,
thank you for this recipe, i want to give it a try.
are you saying that you do not dry it after you rinse??????
that would be awesome and a lot less work!
My best concoction is: 50% Clear Vinegar & 50% Isopropyl Alcohol…. it has been my experience that Vinegar deletes the action of Soaps….[If you have too much suds, add Vinegar and they’ll be eliminated].
I need something like this for car windows please help. The people i got the car from were smokers and theres a film on the windows
O.K. BUT WHAT ABOUT MIRRORS?
mirrors are glass.
I have read a random blog that uses this exact window cleaner, too. I am now convinced. Your window looks so clean and clear, and that’s awesome! For all the people out there who hates vinegar as a cleaning solution, this one is for you.
I don’t know why everyone feels the need to keep adding soap to vinegar. I work in a store with a glass front, we have high traffic of kids and adults who are apparently afraid to use the handles, needless to say at the end of the day there is a plethora of hand, nose, forehead and arm prints all over the glass. Here’s the solution 50% white vinegar 50% water and a cloth. There is no need for soap, alcohol, news paper or whatever else pops up. SIMPLIFY!
The soap, even a tiny amount, breaks the surface tension of the water allowing it to get into micro-small crevices it otherwise might not, so it’s helpful for long term dirty windows. But, you are right, vinegar and water is all you need for daily sparkle clean. Plus, there’s something psychologically pleasing about having even just a little sudsing in our cleaning water 🙂
I love this window cleaning recipe. I worked for a shower door store and people would ask what was recommended for cleaning the shower doors. I wish I had this recipe then instead of selling people a $15 bottle of cleaner that was messy and full of chemicals.
We bought a house and the windows must not have been cleaned in many years. I sprayed the windows with enough cleaner to allow the cleaner to run down the windows, then I took a sponge with the scrub side and cleaned the windows then wiped them down. The results are amazing. I use the mixture for cleaning everything.
Built a new home with a walk out basement 3 years ago. While it’s awesome to look out at the trees and lake, cleaning those huge high windows was quite a challenge. My husband would take out an extension ladder with towels and a squeegee. Needless to say, kind of dangerous and what a hassle. We decided to try the Windex Outdoor Glass & Patio Concentrated Cleaner that you attach to a hose. It did an OK job, but so expensive. We decided there had to be a better way. Found your site and recipe and was so excited to give it a try. We have the Carrand 93111 10″ Quad Brush that we purchased from amazon and attached it to an extension pole. Multiplied the recipe by 12 to this: 24 (1½ gal) cups hot water, 3 cups white vinegar, 1/8 cup Dawn. If someone can be pumped about cleaning windows, it was my husband. Simply brushed on the solution, immediately rinsed and the results are beyond fantastic. Some of the windows were in the sun but they still are clear and shiny. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’m sending this along to my kids and sister.
Fantastic! So glad y’all like it. It sure does make washing windows a bit more fun, huh?
Amy Thanks! Love this and going to try. Just moved in a new house last year and have some high windows I can’t get to but going to try soon! I know this isn’t a window question but thought you may have an answer. When washing my windows I discovered these little black bug dots on the siding. Can’t get them off. I like to wash the siding also when doing the windows but this is getting me crazy. Do you or anyone have an answer what to do to get these off? Thanks so very much!!!
I do not, Linda. We’ve had the same problem from time to time and I’ve used a variety of cleaners. Elbow grease seems to work best.
We have artillery fungus , black spores, causing black dots on our white siding. Not sure if this is what you have but if so it is hard to clean. We switched our mulch to cedar, a slow decomposer, after clearing out our mulch beds and turned off the sprinkler to retard its growth. The spores are thrown several yards and are attracted to light colors, siding cars etc. Hope this helps.
OMG….it works!!!!! sooooo happy to find this. I bought the extension pole and the detachable mop type sponge head and this was so easy…sparkling clean in a flash…thank you thank you!!!! I was about to brave the ladder before finally finding your suggetsion and am tickled to death!!!
Yay! So glad you shared your success with me. My grimy windows are waiting for a wash too.
This is definitely the tried and true way to clean windows. Been thinking of adding it to our services but it seems all the companies in our industry are using the pure water and waterfed poles to clean windows these days.
They even have tools to clean windows inside now. It is actually a very interesting process.
Great blog, by the way. Getting ready to read your “turkey on the grill” next.
Hello Dave! Thank you for letting me know. Indoor window cleaning tools? I need that!
I hope you enjoyed the grilled turkey post. The Mayonnaise Turkey Recipe is a good one too!
A little trick I learned from my foster mother many years ago is to add a little ammonia with the vinegar and soap. This dries the window before it has a chance to streak.
Thanks for the tip, Rick! I’ll have to try that next time.
I also make a mixture of white vinegar and water to clean my windows and the mirrors too. All of my windows become clean without any expensive windows cleaner. Thanks for the article!
Wow! That failed miserably for me, and there’s a film left behind that even windex wont take off for me! Now what do I do?
Worked great. Thank you.
You don’t need anything like this much soap! One teaspoon per quart is more than enough. In fact, I usually use about a teaspoon per gallon and skip the vinegar. Just use a squeegee before it dries and you’re good.
Using the 1/2 teaspoon per 2 cups (or 1 teaspoon per quart) is what was recommended professionally and is what we continue to use with great results.