Importance of the right cleaning products

Ensure that your blinds are always cleaned correctly with the suitable cleaning agents for your blinds to avoid any unnecessary disappointment with discoloration or damage to your blinds.

A story from a person put off buying blinds again after using the wrong cleaning materials on the blinds.

I’ll Never Own Blinds Again: My Frustrating Experience

I had just bought a new home in suburban Calgary and it came without window coverings.  No blinds, no curtains.  I was alright with that because part of the allure of this particular home was that my husband and I could decorate however we felt, and he and I had spent the last six months saving up a “decoration fund” that we had planned on using for new furniture, cabinets, paint, etc.  In essence, I was actually kind of glad that there were no blinds- if gave us an excuse to buy new ones.

We bought a set of blinds from Home Depot and spent a fair bit on them (almost $4,000 on blinds alone).  They were made of wood (I can’t remember what type) and were quite attractive.  They were finished in a piano-black color that we both really enjoy (it matches our LCD TV) and we had each window precisely measured to ensure that they would fit.

Come the time to install them there were no problems- everything fit like a glove and looked great inside the window!  We spent a few hours putting them all in, and after a hard days work we celebrated with a nice bottle of wine and perfectly cooked steaks.

The Problem

Several weeks went by and we focused on other things.  The blinds worked perfectly and functioned as we expected them to.  However, after a few weeks they had gotten a bit dusty and I determined it was time to clean them.  The sales person had told us that the blinds were okay to have mild cleaning agents or soap used on them so long it was applied with a rag/towel and was not sprayed on.

As I was cleaning them I noticed a few blotches here and there, but a quick rub down showed that they were just temporary and wouldn’t last the life of the blinds.  I proceeded to clean my blinds this way for several months and I never had any problems.  About a year later I’m sitting in my main room watching television when I notice that the blinds appear to have warped a little bit.  Upon further inspection I had proven myself right- the blinds had warped slightly.  More than half of the blinds were not straight, and those that were looked quite funny compared to the blades that were warped.

As you can imagine, I was ticked off.  In fact, I was downright mad.  But, as my husband reminded me, the six month warranty had long been and gone.  We tried to get whatever help we could, but the reality is that the blinds were ruined and they were going to stay that way.  Our piano-black blinds, of which we had spent nearly £3,000 on, were now garbage.  My husband and I went and picked out some curtains a few days after my discovery, and the blinds themselves were thrown in the garbage.

That was my £3,000 sob story, and trust me, I’m never buying blinds again.