Everyone thinks to clean their bathrooms, mop floors, and even wipe down walls to keep their home clean. But not many of us think to regularly clean our air vents. If you inspect them, you’ll likely find them covered in dirt and dust. Cleaning them up can improve the look of the whole wall or floor. When was the last time you cleaned yours? Let’s go over how it’s done.
1. Turn Your Furnace and/or Air Conditioning Off
Why, you ask? Because you’ll be taking off your vent covers, and you don’t want air blowing through your duct work without the covers on (especially if the duct work itself hasn’t been cleaned in a while…but that’s another post). We could all stand to turn it off more often, after all.
2. Take Off Your Vents
Your floor or ceiling vents can usually be removed without any tools, but your air returns may require a screwdriver.
3. Throw Them in the Tub
OK, don’t actually throw them. But when was the last time they had a nice bubble bath? Run a few inches of warm water into the tub, and squirt in a few drops of dishwashing liquid. The dish soap will help to cut any grease, and the water will loosen the caked-on dust. Give them about 10 minutes to soak.
4. Use a Little Elbow Grease
After the soak, grab your scrub brush and scrub the dirt away from both sides.
5. “You Rinse, I’ll Dry”
Get a towel handy that you don’t mind putting on the floor. Drain the tub and rinse the soap off of all your vents, then set them on the towel for a few minutes. You will want to towel them off so they aren’t dripping, but if they’re not totally dry when you put them back on, that’s okay! The air from your HVAC will dry them the rest of the way.
Ta-da! Your vents are all clean. Now when do YOU get to take a bubble bath?
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