To not have a clue how to clean windows without making them look worse?

[museumum]

Seriously, it really pisses me off, I just can't clean the windows so they're actually clean without smears. How the fuck do you do it?
What do you use?

They're double glazed so there's the additional loveliness of two layers of smears :(

whatever product you use, the secret is newspaper afterwards.

Equal parts vinegar and water in a mist sprayer, spray over window, wipe with kitchen roll or microfibre cloth, then karcher to vac up the excess, then wipe with second bit of kitchen roll or microfibre around edges to pick up any droplets left behind. Beautifully sparkling windows and in double quick time!

Mr muscle glass and window cleaner and kitchen roll also here.

Right. I work from home and am going to spend tomorrow's lunch break trying to do the livingroom bay.
Wish me luck!

Erm... Can somebody link to the kind of vinegar I should get? (Clearly not balsamic or chip-shop stuff which is all we ever buy).

Surely vinegar makes the house smell like a fish and chip shop. What sort of vinegar?

Just white vinegar.

And you only put a couple of capfuls into the water.

You really don't need equal measures vinegar and water - I'd say more like 1 part vinegar to about 10 of water.

The vinegar smell fades very quickly and your windows will sparkle.

I did mine today with the steam mop and a microfibre cloth to polish off. They look sparkling - give it a go.

windolene and kitchen towel and lots of rubbing the trick is to add lots of pressure to the window my streaks just melt away when i rub hard

I only use hot water, a green e-cloth to scrub/clean and a pink e-cloth to buff dry. They come up beautifully without needing and cleaning products. I agree with the comment not to clean the windows when they are in direct sunlight. They streak like a bugger and it's a waste of time.

I recommend Aldi's window & glass cleaner, it contains white vinegar but smells of green apples.

To clean the ground floor windows outside I first wash them using a soft broom dunked in hot soapy water. Then when dry finish with the Adli spray.

Inside I wash with sponge & soapy water first, then the spray.
NO STREAKS AND NO CHIP SHOP SMELL

Newspaper with water and vinegar. But I can't get past your assertion that because they are double glazed you have 2 smeary sides... You do realise that even single glazed windows have and inside and an outside?

Thanks primrose and Beehooven. The Karcher grows ever more tempting.

E-cloth glass cloth - life-changing if you want clean windows/mirrors with no smears. I actually wished i had more windows to clean when i first got one (novelty soon wore off!). If the windows are really filthy, white vinegar in addition (normally e-cloths are best used with just water).

White vinegar can be found in Wilkinson's, their own brand, £1 for a 750ml spray bottle. Whatever you do, don't buy Stardrops brand white vinegar as for some stupid reason they've added scent to try and cover up the sour vinegar scent - which rapidly dissipates anyway - thus ruining a perfectly good product. It's the same effect as the perfume they put on nappy bags - the smell of shit actually being made worse by the notes of horrible cheap synthetic scent combining with it. HTH!

It doesn't matter what you actually use to clean them IMO. A good scrub with a rough sponge and flash, bleach, fairy, glass cleaner, anything...or a homemade concoction of vinegar etc.

The only think that I've found will make them gleam, with no streaks is drying them with screwed up newspaper. Bizarre really seeing as it leaves your hands smudged with black but your windows sparkling.

I know all glass has two sides

But in single glazing the smears are easier to see through, if you focus your eyes on something outside you can see beyond the smears - somehow with the big gap between its harder to see through the two sets of smears. I know this cause we only got the double glazing about 18mo ago.

A chamois leather like you'd use for your car is the answer!!

I'm crap at window-cleaning too, and I second the e-cloth thingy for streak-free inside panes. Get a window-cleaner to do the outside, and never get a dog that likes to sit on the window-sill and smear barkiness and doggy dribble all over your nice clean glass.

Have no idea what an e-cloth might be. Better Google....

Windolene - it's MAGIC

Only thing I find works is a good glug of methylated spirit in hot water, two microfibre cloths, wring one out in the hot water, clean then polish with dry cloth.

A car cleaner called Showroom Shine is a close second.

Where can I buy meths from?

softened water makes window cleaning a doddle. Half a drop of WUL, a sponge, and a squeegee or a cotton rag to get it off. It has no lime so doesn't leave watermarks.

I think if you have a Brita jug you could give that a try, you will need several jugfuls.

I use my steam cleaner on the inside and my mirror. Love it I'm gonna get a proper squeegee though because the window attachment is a pain.

Yes yes the pink glass e-cloth is amazing! Never leaves a streak on mirrors or glass. I was so impressed I bought the yellow bathroom one which is the only thing that removed dc horrid bath crayon drawings that I thought had stained it forever. Slthough if my outdoor windows were filthy I'd probably get some hot soapy water and get the dirt off first, rinse and buff with the pink cloth.

When I was a teenager I worked at McDonalds and we had to clean all the windows with soda water and scrunched up newspaper, it did work very well.