how to clean cloth blinds

anni_g wrote:
My class C is 16 years old & it has the cloth horizontal blinds at the big windows which look crappy.

Does anyone know anything about how to clean them? They're also very yellow on the inside & nicely bleached white from the sun on the outside, so I'd like to also whiten them a bit, if possible without bleach. Only the top thicker 1/2 is nicely bleached white from the sun.

I have no idea what material they're out of nor if they can be soaked in water or anything.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

Anni G
23' class C, with my wonderful 11 year old rescue dog Koko, towing a Subi with kayak & bike (11 more states to go!)

I can think of 2 choices at this point w/o knowing the fabric content (prolly man made if the rv is 16 years old) and construction.

1) As a test, soak a slat or 2 in cold to lukewarm water with powdered bleach and ammonia added. Since the fabric has aged differently per slat try angle placement in the water so that the yellow side gets more solution. Check it every half an hour or so to ensure that the fabric is not separating from the possibly hard base (can be re-glued using white glue if needed). You may need to soak for up to 2 days for the bleach to take full effect.

2) Vacuum the blinds and recover with a new fabric using white glue to adhere. An Xacto knife and beveled edge steel ruler would be your friend with this project. A densely woven UV resistant fabric with no sheen would be easiest to apply.

HTH.

ETA- a picture of the blinds could go a long way towards defining what fabric and construction was used to manufacturer 'em.