Keeping the glass in your home flawlessly clean will help you get the most out of all your beautiful glass surfaces. Fortunately, residential glass products tend to require minimal maintenance, but you’ll still want to keep your glass dirt and smudge-free so you can enjoy them. From glass mirrors to splashbacks and balustrading, here’s a detailed look at how to clean glass like an expert.
What You Need to Keep the Glass in Your Home Looking Spotless
There’s nothing more stunning – or more serene – than clean glass. Without any smudges or accumulated dust and grime, your home’s glass features can interact with the light the way you want them to, whether you’re after a brilliant reflective surface for your glass mirrors or the minimalist aesthetic of crystal-clear glass balustrades and shower doors.
When I or my team experts clean glass, we like to have specific tools to ensure a perfect finish. After all, when it comes to experts’ clean glass, subpar doesn’t cut it because even a minor smudge or mark can stand out, ruining the pristine feel of the glass.
Working with different types of glass and glass cleaning supplies over the years, we can say for sure that the quality of your cleaning materials matters. We like to use high-quality cleaning rags and a premium citrus-based glass cleaner that we’ve found to be really effective.
- Glass cleaning rags – We use two different rags. The first is a general detail rag and the second is a microfibre cloth.
- Glass cleaner – Our glass cleaner of choice is a simple housemade blend of water and a citrus-based product.
5 Steps to Cleaning Your Glass Like a Pro
With these steps, you’ll be able to achieve an outstanding finish with every type of glass you own. You can use the same process whether you’re working with glass table tops, bathroom mirrors, glass pool fencing, or anything else – this process works well for both indoor and outdoor glass features.
1. Apply a generous amount of glass cleaner to the glass. The goal is to completely cover the surface. If you’re worried your glass cleaner is going to run onto the flooring, your mirror frame, or another surface, you can cover it before cleaning.
2. Let the glass cleaner sit for at least 10 seconds, although 30 seconds or even a little longer is better. As the glass cleaner sits on the surface, it will lubricate the glass and slowly start to remove any accumulated grime.
3. Lubricate your first cleaning rags – the detailing cloth – by spraying some of your glass cleaners on them. This will create a smooth surface that makes it easy to remove spots on the glass.
4. Take your lubricated cleaning rags and start wiping across the surface, cleaning from side to side. Keep doing this until every part of the glass is cleaned – you really want to make sure you don’t miss any spots. These rags aren’t the best at sucking up all the excess moisture and residue that’s left from your cleaning product, but this isn’t their job anyway. The next step – the secret trick glass experts use – will take care of the residue.
5. Next, use your dry microfibre cloth and wipe all the remaining residue off the glass. To do this, start at the top and then buff the glass in a circular motion. Work your way all the way down to the bottom with the same circular technique. As you buff the glass, you’re picking up any leftover moisture and you’re getting the glass completely spot-free. It’s this step that creates that desired sparkling clean look.
Experts Clean Glass Tips
Here are some pro tips that can help to make cleaning your glass even easier.
It’s really important to use the right cleaner to help you get that streak-free finish. Some cheap glass cleaners can leave you with unwanted streaks. A cleaner with a citrus or vinegar base will help to keep your glass streak-free.
Make sure you’re using a new, clean microfibre cloth when you buff your glass. When you wipe the glass with a circular motion pick up any leftover glass cleaner residue. If there is any dust or grime on your microfibre cloth, you’ll end up depositing it onto your freshly cleaned glass!
Once you’re done, you can look at the glass from a 45-degree angle to make sure you didn’t leave any streaks or marks. From this angle, you’ll see extra light on the glass, which can help to illuminate any remaining spots or streaks. If you do notice anything, you can simply spray the spot, and follow the same process, wiping first with the detailing rag and then buffing with a clean microfibre cloth in a circular motion.
How Often Should You Clean Your Glass?
You can clean the glass in your home as often as you’d like. One of the advantages of glass is that it’s incredibly long-lasting. And it ages well unlike other materials like timber and some synthetics. You won’t harm it if you want to clean it all the time.
On the other hand, internal glass products don’t need to clean frequently. Features like balustrading and living room mirrors often stay clean for longer periods of time. As a rule of thumb, you can clean glass as part of your normal house cleaning routine, or even less if you don’t notice any marks on the glass. For glass that’s more heavily used or that’s vulnerable to accumulating dust, like kitchen splashbacks, bathroom mirrors, and glass table tops, you may want to clean more frequently.
Outdoor glass features like pool fencing can benefit from a more aggressive cleaning schedule as they have more potential for dirt and smudging. Now that you know how professional glaziers clean their glass products, you can keep all the glass in your home eye-catching clean! The best part is, you can restore that pristine, like-new aesthetic in just a few minutes …now if only cleaning the stove was that simple.
