Raise your hand if you like cleaning windows! Anyone? Bueller? I’m guessing two people have their hands raised. The rest of us “normal people” don’t tend to enjoy cleaning windows. So how do you keep your windows looking their best all year round? We have 3 tips for you.

1) Watch the water

Hard water is a huge problem in the Valley, and it won’t be getting better anytime soon. And, unfortunately, nothing can wreck windows quite like hard water stains can. Over time the minerals build up on the glass, creating a foggy layer of crud, which makes it look like there is a blanket of clouds obscuring your view.

So, in order to protect your windows and their long-term health, it's really important that you be aware of which windows are being hit by hard water.

Take a quick inventory around your home:

• Irrigation systems are often the biggest perpetrator in this department. Are any of your sprinklers hitting your windows if so it is time to adjust those sprinklers?
• How about on your pool deck? Are you rinsing off the glass with your water hose when you rinse the deck? This is a big no-no. That hard water is attacking your glass, and over time will leave it looking awful.

2) Scrub-a-dub-dub

So you already have hard water staining on your glass? You've Windexed and 409ed and nothing works?

Here are some suggestions to clean those windows and make them sparkle again:

• Try a little vinegar and lemon juice. No, not to drink!
• Mix vinegar, lemon juice and water solution and spray it on your hard water stained glass.
• Let it sit for a few minutes.
• And then start scrubbing. Reapply and scrub some more.

Vinegar and lemon juice work to dissolve the mineral stains because they are mildly acidic; but not enough so to be dangerous. It's tedious work, so we recommend playing a little music to help the time go by.

3) Vigilance! Constant vigilance!

So now you've got all the hard water stains off of your windows. (Or most of them, anyway!) How do you go about keeping your glass looking its best year round?

• The professional window cleaning experts recommend spacing things out a bit. Instead of putting the overwhelming chore of cleaning all of your windows on that Weekend "to-do list," why not do 5 windows this weekend, another 5 next weekend, and so on. When you finish them all, go ahead and start back with the first set again. This constant rotation will keep you from getting overwhelmed with such a huge job, and it will keep your windows looking bright and shiny.
• Not interested in cleaning windows every weekend for the rest of your life?

Well, the absolute easiest way to have clean windows without lifting a finger is to call one of our ToFixIt experts and ask to be put on a quarterly maintenance plan.