Cleaning Your Window Shutters

Whether the shutters on your home serve a functional or practical purpose (or both), they still need to be cleaned periodically. The good news is that if you go about it the right way, it’s surprisingly easy to do.

So with this in mind, here’s a quick guide to cleaning the most common types of household shutters, like the pros:

Cleaning Plantation Shutters (wood shutters)

The best way to keep wooden shutters clean is to tackle them once or twice a week using a vacuum cleaner with a soft-nozzle attachment. This should get rid of most of the dust, dirt, and debris that begin to accumulate.

Monthly, take a cloth and mist it with a little high-quality wood polish. Give the shutters a thorough yet gentle polish to keep them looking and smelling fabulous.

If there are any crevices or cracks that are harbouring dust and dirt, use a soft toothbrush with a very light spray of furniture polish to clean them out.

Under no circumstances should you use excessive amounts of water, soaking wet cloths, or soap to clean plantation shutters. No, doing so could irreparably damage the wood.

Cleaning Vinyl or painted shutters

Once again, the best offence is a good defence, that being to vacuum the shutters once or twice a week to get rid of the dirt before it begins to pile up. Use the same soft brush attachment.

Make a very mild soapy solution using 1 litre of water for every 1 teaspoon of washing-up liquid. Make sure the water is warm, not hot, and combine it in a bucket. Dampen a cloth in the liquid and give your shutters a good wipe.

Take a second cloth, dampen it in clean water, and use it to wipe away any of the soap residue. It’s important to do this, as you may otherwise be left with unsightly marks when dry.

Ensure your shutters are dried as thoroughly as possible using a clean, dry cloth.

You can also use the same trick with a moistened toothbrush to get into any crevices you can’t reach.

Cleaning exterior shutters

Exterior shutters have a habit of getting somewhat dirtier in a much shorter period of time. Nevertheless, you really just need the same mild soapy solution as mentioned above: 1 teaspoon of dish soap for every 1 litre of water

Before getting started, use a hose pipe or a pressure washer on a gentle setting to rinse away the loose dirt and debris. This will make the rest of the cleaning process a lot easier.

Use a clean, soft brush or a mop, ideally something that can be attached to a long pole, to tackle the shutters higher up on your home. It’s better to clean them this way from the ground rather than scaling a ladder with a handful of tools.

Start at the top and work your way down, finishing off with a final rinse from the hose pipe to prevent any soapy marks from being left behind.

If it looks like rain, you might want to think about delaying your cleaning project by a day or two!