When you burn candles, it can be hard to always keep the soot under control. This can lead to soot stains on your walls, ceilings, and even your blinds. Cleaning soot stains from your blinds can be time consuming and useless if you aren’t doing it properly. Luckily, there is a simple way that you can remove soot stains from your blinds.
When you clean your blinds to remove soot, it is best to use a microfiber cloth because you won’t be trailing lint as you are cleaning. The cleaner you are going to use will depend on the type of blinds you have because you don’t want to ruin the material.
Cleaning soot off of blinds can be an extremely easy process when you use the right products. If you have wood blinds, you will need to use a hardwood floor cleaner. For most other blinds, you can use a grease cleaner because it cuts through soot easily.
How Do You Get Soot off Blinds?
Cleaning soot off blinds doesn’t have to be as time consuming as you might think. You will just need to be careful while you are cleaning to prevent damaging the blinds. It is important to remember that blinds can be flimsy and break easily, so apply only as much pressure as necessary when you are cleaning.
The first thing you need to do when cleaning soot off your blinds is try to get as much dust and other debris off as possible. You can do this by using a duster and a vacuum cleaner. The duster will knock all of the dust loose and the vacuum cleaner will pick up any of the pieces the duster left behind.
Wood Blinds
If you have wood blinds that have soot stuck to them, you are going to want to use a hardwood floor cleaner for the cleaning job. A floor cleaner will work to clean and protect the wood while being extremely easy to use. The best part is you don’t have to rinse the product after you are finished.
You can spray the floor cleaner onto the blinds or spray it directly onto the microfiber cloth. It is best to start at the top of the blinds so you can clean up any drips as you work your way down. You can keep the blinds closed flat against the window and easily wipe down each slat.
As you work down the blinds, you will need to constantly move to a clean part of the microfiber cloth. This will prevent any build up from making its way back onto the blinds as you are cleaning. There is a possibility that you could go through several cloths before removing all of the soot.
When you have finished removing all of the soot from the first side of the blinds, rotate them so you can clean the other side. Follow the same process as the first side, taking extra care to move to a clean spot of the microfiber cloth each time.
Plastic, Vinyl, Metal Blinds
If you have plastic, vinyl, or metal blinds, you can use a regular grease cleaner to remove soot from them. Just like the floor cleaner, the grease cleaner won’t need to be rinsed off the blinds after you’ve finished cleaning them.
It is possible to spray the grease cleaner right onto the blinds or spray it onto the microfiber cloth. Starting at the top of the blinds, work your way down until you reach the bottom. Make sure you move to a different part of the cloth often to avoid transferring the soot back onto the blinds.
Just like the wood blinds, you can close these blinds flat against the window for easy cleaning. Follow the process on the first side, flip the blinds, then repeat the process on the other side. You will then have clean, soot free blinds.
We recommend using a grease cleaner like Easy Off. Click here to check the current price and availability on Amazon.
Strings/Ladders
If the soot is also on the strings or ladders holding your blinds together, you can actually clean them with a foam shaving cream. All you need to do is spray some of the foam shaving cream onto a microfiber cloth, grab the part of the string that has soot, and rub. The shaving cream will work to remove the soot without dripping or the need to rinse.
How to Prevent Soot on Blinds
After you get the soot removed from your blinds, you will want to make sure you don’t have to go through the process all over again. There are luckily a couple different ways that you can prevent soot from getting stuck on your blinds.
The very first thing you can do is move your candle to a different location. Moving the candle away from the blinds will prevent the smoke and soot from finding the surface to stick to. Burning candles near blinds is also a fire hazard, so you should stop this anyway. Make sure the candle is at least a foot away from blinds.
You can also trim your wick to prevent soot from spreading to your blinds. The wick should be trimmed down to about a quarter of an inch. This will prevent the flame from catching a breeze and blowing smoke and soot towards your blinds.
Final Thoughts
It can be really frustrating to have to deal with candle soot on your blinds. Luckily, if you use the right materials, you can clean the soot off in no time. The type of cleaner you use will depend on what type of blinds you have, so be sure you check your blinds before starting.
For wood blinds, you will get the best results with a hardwood floor cleaner. For all other types of blinds, you will get great results from using a grease cleaner. These are the best options because you don’t have to rinse them off after.
After you clean the soot off, you will need to make sure you prevent it from happening again. Make sure you keep your candle at least a foot away from your blinds when it is burning and cut down the wick.