how to clean cloth blinds

[anni_g]

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!)

[anni_g]

Thanks all!
I decided to go with Woolite. I took it outside after cleaning off the driveway since the blind is too large to fit into anything.
I mixed some water with Woolite & using a soft brush cleaned the blind & let it soak for a good while. It decreased the stain by at least 50%. After using the hose and washing it out, I repeated again & this time it was soaking for quite a few hours & I was quite generous with my Woolite on the bad stains.
By the end of the day, the stain was minimized to a small area of about 2" and only on one of the pleats.
It whitened quite a bit, but maybe also because it was in the sun for maybe an hour too.
I only did this on the night half of the blind. I haven't tried it on the thin fabric part of the blind.
Again, thanks!

[NYCgrrl]

westend wrote:
Yeah, survival was what I had in mind. Oxygen bleach and sodium hypochlorite are different materials. I've accidentally mixed chlorine and ammonia. It was a fairly big mess, that's why I asked.

FWIW, I've successfully used hydrogen peroxide to remove stains and fading on white cloth and paper. I applied it lightly with a spray bottle.

Never tried hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle but have done the saturated cotton ball then place in sun method. Even better when I can find some washing soda to mix in.
Thanks for the heads up on using HP on paper.Never knew that! :C

[westend]

Yeah, survival was what I had in mind. Oxygen bleach and sodium hypochlorite are different materials. I've accidentally mixed chlorine and ammonia. It was a fairly big mess, that's why I asked.

FWIW, I've successfully used hydrogen peroxide to remove stains and fading on white cloth and paper. I applied it lightly with a spray bottle.

[NYCgrrl]

westend wrote:

NYCGirl wrote:
As a test, soak a slat or 2 in cold to lukewarm water with powdered bleach and ammonia added

Do you ever see a chemical reaction when you do this?

I've noted a chemical reaction in the sense that the 2 products,oxygen bleach and ammonia, deodorize + bleach nicely BUT not the noxious and quite possibly fatal gas one gets when mixing chlorine bleach w/ ammonia(DON'T DO IT!!!); the 2 bleaches have different chemical compositions:).

Oh and I learned that the gas made by combining Clorox and ammonia is opaque white courtesy of one of my sons.
Sooo many reasons to wonder how he survived being a teenager and and why me too:h.

[westend]

NYCGirl wrote:
As a test, soak a slat or 2 in cold to lukewarm water with powdered bleach and ammonia added

Do you ever see a chemical reaction when you do this?

[NYCgrrl]

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.

[missourijan]

I would take them down, this may be a little challenging the way some manufacturers installed them. If you can take them down, lay them on a patio table outside and spray with Folex, a carpet & upholstery cleaner. I would also try diluted Oxyclean.

[The_Kroc]

Are these blinds really "pleated shades"? If so, the material is polyester and a mild soap & warm water bath with a little gentle brushing will take the dirt out. It won't do anything about the fading however

[doxiemom11]

I don't know if the fabric would be like the day/night shade fabric found in a lot of rv's, but I have seen where people said they used oxi clean on those and were very pleased. I haven't tried mine yet, but need to. Afraid I'll ruin them and so expensive to replace them all at once if I do. Some day I'll get brave.