Cleaning ceiling fans is an aggravating job. You can get the blades clean, but the dust falls below onto the kitchen table or the living room floor. And you probably have to tackle fans in multiple rooms.
You can solve these problems by taking a few minutes to make your own cleaning tool. All you need is a new paint roller, an extension pole for the paint roller frame, a couple of dryer sheets, and two rubber bands.
Clean your ceiling fans
Put the sheets around the roller, overlapping them, and wrap with a rubber band at each end.
Slide the roller onto the frame and attach the frame to the extension pole. Now you're ready to clean.
Carefully roll your tool over the top sides of the blades. Keep rolling over the blades from the center outward. The roller sheet will collect the dust without allowing it to fall.
Get rid of cobwebs
When you're finished with the fans, change the dryer sheets. Then you can use your tool to get rid of cobwebs on the ceiling and in hard-to-reach places like around ceiling mounted lights and where the ceiling meets the wall.
Clean wooden blinds
Here's a tip for cleaning 2-inch wooden blinds or shutters at the windows. Advisor Shelly Miller Leer, writing in the Indianapolis Star, recommends using wet Magic Eraser cloths from Mr. Clean.
The cloths will need to be rinsed often, but they will pick up all the dirt, dust and nicotine that may have accumulated on the slats over several months.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
