Cleaning the vents in your home can make a great impact in the overall appearance of your house. They’re one thing in your home that can be easily forgotten and missed, but insuring that they are cleaned thoroughly can be a wonderful benefit to your routine cleanings!
When to Clean Your Vents
It can be helpful to know when you ought to clean your air vents. If they’ve been left untouched for too long, they begin to pick up dust particles. After a while, the layers of dust get thicker, and it creates an unsightly blanket of dust that needs to be taken care of. If any of the vents at your house look like this, then cleaning them will be a great idea!
Cleaning the Vents
The tools you use to clean your vents depends on the type of buildup that’s collected on your vents. If there is a layer of heavy, loose dust, cleaning the vents will be relatively simple. If the dust is grimy, it will take a little more effort to clean, but the effort will be well worth it.
For heavy, loose dust you will need:
· dusting tool (such as a feather duster or a clean rag)
For grimy dust that is stuck onto the vent you will need:
· clean rags
· a 1 ½” scraper (it looks like a drywall knife)
· a degreasing cleaner
If the vents are out of reach, you might need a step ladder to reach them.
Once you’ve gathered your supplies, clean the vents as necessary. If your vents are full of heavy, loose dust, simply take your dusting tool and use it to carefully pull off the dust from the vent slates. Vacuum up any dust that falls to the floor.
If the dust on the vent is grimy and stuck onto the slates, it will take more effort to clean them. First, use your degreasing cleaner to soak the vent. This will help make it easier to rub off the dust. Once the vent has soaked just enough to loosen the dust, take one of the rags, and unfold it so that you can wrap just one layer of the rag around the scrapper. Take the scraper and use it to begin cleaning the individual vent blades. Begin at the top and work your way down to the bottom; use however much pressure you need to get up the grimy dust. When one section of the rag gets too dirty, simply adjust the rag so that a clean part of the rag is being used to clean the vents. Using your rags around a scrapper in this manner prevents the thin slates of the vent from cutting your fingers. Continue cleaning each slate of the vent until you’ve finished.
These two methods are perfect for cleaning any of the air vents in your home! Wiping down all of the vents in your home may be a little time consuming, but the results will impact your home in a worthwhile way.