Compare The Maids® 22-Step Healthy Touch® Deep Cleaning System to any other home cleaning company!

Wait for an overcast day. While the sunshine might remind you to clean your windows, it can actually sabotage your efforts. On sunny days, the windows dry faster and are more likely to streak. Wait for the next cloudy day to make your windows really sparkle.

Use the right tool. There are several options for which tool to use, but you should choose one of these three to get the best clean:

Squeegees are quite literally made for this job, and they’re an excellent tool for it, the drawback being that many people don’t have a squeegee laying around.

Crumpled newspaper is the best every day material for cleaning windows. Not only is a newspaper less likely to leave a streak free shine or lint like a paper towel, it also leaves a dirt-resistant residue on the window!

Lint free towels do a great job of cleaning without leaving any frustrating lint behind. They’re also usually washable and reusable.

Wipe directionally. If you wash the outside windows with vertical strokes and the inside windows with horizontal strokes, if you get a streak you’ll be able to identify immediately which side of the window is effected.

Wash from the top down. If you’re washing horizontally, start at the top of the frame and wipe side to side to the bottom. If you’re wiping vertically, start from the top right or left corner and work your way across quickly. This will prevent dripping, minimizing the risk of streaks and damage to the sills or walls around your windows.

Use a rain repellent. On your outdoor windows, a rain repellent like the kind you use on windshields will cause rain—and other unpleasant things—to slide more easily off your windows, maintaining the clean longer and making them easier to clean later.

Window cleaning is one of those tasks that needs to be done, but isn’t always pleasant to do. Check with local housekeeping services—a good service will clean your most-frequently used windows at every visit and offer additional services to clean every window in your house!