How To Leave Your Mirrors Streak-free Without Harmful Chemicals

While store-bought glass cleaners like Invisible Glass and Windex excel at their job, it is cheaper, safer, and equally effective to use natural alternatives.

So if you want to say goodbye to potentially dangerous chemicals (or just save a trip to the store) and leave your mirrors streakless, here you can learn how to do it!

Step #1. Clean off all the dust and dirt from the mirror

Remove all the dust, linen, and paper residue from your mirror before anything else. Otherwise, smudges and scratches can appear later when wet wiping the glass.

You can use a duster or a clean microfiber cloth to dust your mirror gently from top to bottom. Before you think you’ve finished this step, look again. There could still be faint dust on the mirror, so shake your cleaning tool and dust the glass again before continuing.

Note: On framed mirrors, tiny dirt particles could get trapped in the slits between the glass and the frame. Use a toothpick to unstuck and remove that debris.

Step #2. Make a potent alcohol and vinegar mixture

Although not as common as other DIY cleaning solutions, alcohol and vinegar is your best choice to leave your mirrors streakless in a natural way. Thanks to the chemical composition of both ingredients, you’ll easily remove oil stains (like fingerprints), sticky spots, and hard water stains from the mirror.

Make this solution by mixing equal parts of water, vinegar, and alcohol (isopropyl works better for sticky spots) inside a spray bottle.

Note: If your mirror looks particularly dingy, consider using less water in favor of the other agents for more cleaning power.

Is vinegar really necessary?

Every ingredient of the mixture does its part in the cleaning, and vinegar’s role is to remove those chalky white spots in your mirror. So, if you want the best results, use vinegar. 

Step #3. Focus on the difficult spots

It’s crucial you don’t overlook this step, or you will add unnecessary hassle when wiping the whole mirror due to smudges. Avoid the struggle by damping a microfiber cloth with your cleaning solution and taking your time rubbing away any tough stains you notice.

Note: Dried glue from long-gone stickers is tougher to remove. Use a little more elbow grease and different sections of the cloth to remove all the adhesive. 

Step #4. Wipe away the dirt

Most people’s first instinct could be to spray the whole surface of the mirror, but besides drenching and dripping, you could damage the silver backing and metal or wooden frames (due to the vinegar). Instead, dampen a clean microfiber cloth again with your DIY solution.

Now, work through the mirror from top to bottom, wiping in quick Z-shaped motions. The zig-zag movement prevents streaks and helps you keep an eye on which areas you’ve already wiped.

Step #5 Dry and buff thoroughly

Once there’s no more dirt left, quickly grab another clean microfiber cloth and dry the mirror in zig-zag motions. Once dry, take a good look and check for smudges. Buff any spots out with the same microfiber cloth. 

Can you use newspapers to wipe the mirror?

Although they do the job well, some newspapers use a type of ink that can drip and stain when in contact with water, rendering your cleaning efforts useless. If you still want to use newspapers to dry, be sure to check if they will smear or not.

We can keep your mirrors always shining!

If you don’t have the time to dust and wipe your mirrors constantly, Custom Cleaning Of The Palm Beaches can help! We offer mirror wiping as an add-on to all our services, so you won’t have to worry about anything. Ask for your free quote!