Cleaning Your Blackout Blinds To Keep Allergies At Bay

For the best results and to keep allergies at bay, you'll want to keep up with your cleaning. Your allergist probably has already recommended vacuuming 2 to 3 times a week with a vacuum with a hepa filter. You should also dust at least once a week (if you're the one with allergies, while wearing a mask). When dusting your blackout blinds for the first time after an extended period, make sure you use a damp cloth to reduce the amount of dust and allergens that fly up.

Everyone suggests doing a little a day to make cleaning your home as easy as possible. If you're someone who can do this, switch off your vacuuming and dusting days. If you can even dust your blackout blinds once a week, you'll significantly reduce the amount of dust and allergens that collect in your room. If you can manage it and your house collects a lot of dust or you have a pet (or a few pets) it may be best to dust twice a week.

Make sure you dust your blackout blinds with a damp cloth to keep from pushing the allergens up in the air or spreading them around your home. If you have stained wood blinds, you can use furniture polish to keep the blinds looking great. Be sure to get both sides of the blackout blinds as well as the window casing and the entire window.

If you're more like me and can't manage to clean a little every day, be sure that you always use a damp cloth when dusting your blackout blinds. Another great suggestion is to keep the windows in your home closed at all times. This helps in keeping the amount of dust and allergens that collect on your blinds and other furniture down. It's not always possible to keep your windows closed at all times, especially on the warmer days of spring and the hot summer days. During those seasons, consider enlisting the help of your family to keep dust and allergens at bay.

Are Blackout Blinds Safe For Nurseries?

There are a lot of questions that come to mind when people are considering what type of furnishings to put in a nursery. Overall, blackout blinds are a great choice for nurseries, but there are some steps you need to take to make sure they are safe for your baby.

First of all, blackout blinds can keep you nursery dark when you want your child to sleep and allow you the flexibility of adjusting the light in the room while still maintaining privacy. So, if you're going to be in the nursery during the day (and not just for naptime), it's a great way to allow for playtime without compromising your privacy.

So, what do you need to do to make sure your blackout blinds are safe for your nursery? The best way is to choose motorized blackout blinds. Those, however, are typically out of the budget. The next best thing is to choose blackout blinds that are operated with a wand, not a cord. Oftentimes, you'll get the choice. However, this usually does not apply to the pulling up/down operation. So, you can choose to remove the cords for that or cut them so no small child can reach.

If you already have blackout blinds that are cord operated, you'll need to make sure the cords of your blackout blinds don't have any loops. You also need to be sure not to tie the cords together and create a loop that is big enough for a child's head to fit through. Like I previously mentioned, cutting the cords to a height that a child can't reach, is probably your best option. If you don't want to do this, you can choose to add a cleat block, which allows you to tie the blackout blinds cords up high, keeping them out of your child's reach.

Blackout Blinds: Does a Dark Color to Block Out More Light?

You may be asking yourself, if I'm looking to block out more light in my room, will a darker paint color or a darker stain help make my room darker? It's a convoluted answer. Straightforwardly, no, a darker stain or color will not block out more light. While it may appear that a darker color will block out more light, like it is with drapes and curtains, it's not the case with blackout blinds. Blackout blinds are typically made from wood or faux wood (a composite material). These are thick enough that light cannot pass through them.

Now, a darker stain or paint color will make your room appear darker and it typically seems like they block out more light. This is because the darker color absorbs the other light in your room and doesn't reflect it back to your eyes.

Even though you don't need to choose a dark color or stain for your blackout blinds to make a difference, you may want to consider it anyway. The darker color for your blackout blinds may make your room appear darker, which is exactly what you're wanting to accomplish with your blackout blinds. With the darker blinds, you can also consider a darker paint color on your walls to help absorb some of the extra light.

You should also keep in mind the weight a dark color adds to your room. If you have light colored walls and choose a dark stain for your blackout blinds, you will need to consider how you are going to balance the weight on the other side (or sides) of the room. A great way to do this is with your furniture placement, a TV, or family portraits or art paintings.

Blackout Blinds or Blackout Shades? Which to Choose.

When you're looking to decide between blackout blinds and blackout shades, you should always consider which you prefer for design style. However, there is a big key difference you need to keep in mind when considering blackout blinds over blackout shades (or vice versa).

What I've noticed when talking to people who purchased blackout shades is that they love how they look and the fact that they block out 99% of the light (whatever you do with blackout blinds, they won't block out that much light). However, the biggest drawback is that they cannot open their blackout shades while maintaining their privacy. So, if the blackout shades are open, they're open.

Now, living in a sunny place (with neighbors close by), I understand when I hear, "well, we never opened our window blinds so I figured we'd get blackout shades to block out more light than blackout blinds." What most people don't take into account is that normal window blinds still let in a fair amount of light when closed. So, while you may complain about how much light they let in on occasion, do you really want your room pitch black all the time? And, on the times that you don't want it pitch black, do you really want to let anyone passing by look into your window?

Blackout blinds allow for a great amount of flexibility. They block out most of the light, and while they let in more than blackout shades, blackout blinds do their job. Plus, they can look great in any room design. And, you can choose to tilt the slats to let in light while not letting anyone have a view of the room to tilting them so they're horizontal and filtering the view of the room to pulling them up completely to allow for a full view.

If you're still set on blackout shades but want a little more flexibility, consider buying them with the top down, bottom up option. This option allows you to open and close them like regular blackout shades but you can also pull them down from the top: which allows you to let in some light while maintaining your privacy (after all, there are few people who are tall enough to look in from the top of a window).

Blackout Blinds: Great For Allergies

I'm currently going through one of the worst allergy seasons of my life and now understand why my mother was so strict about NEVER having anything but window blinds in their home. Both my father and I suffer from severe allergies and are especially miserable in the spring and fall.

If you're looking for blackout window treatments, you probably first thought of blackout curtains or blackout shades. Both are really popular because they can block out 100% of the light while blackout blinds can't.

However, blackout blinds can block out MOST of that light and are more flexible than drapes or shades... so, there's one good reason to install them in your home. With both blackout drapes and blackout shades, you can only have them open or shut. Blackout blinds let you open, close, and tilt the slats.

Now, I personally LOVE the way drapes look. I've grown up with window blinds my entire life, so I think they're somewhat boring. And, most design shows show adding drapes or roman shades to a room - rarely do they add window blinds. However, the one thing most of them don't consider is that drapes collect EVERYTHING. Dust, pet dander, pet hair... everything gets caught in them and is extremely difficult to get out. Most drapes can only be dry cleaned, which makes it even more difficult and expensive to clean. With blackout blinds, all you need to do is dust!

Now, keep in mind, you should always only get routeless blackout blinds if you're worried about your allergies. There's no reason to make cleaning more difficult - or to give allergens another place to hang on to.

Blackout Blinds: Great For Master Suites

One of the best places for blackout blinds are in the master suite of a home. Often, once new homeowners remember that they need to purchase window coverings for their home, the master suite is left until last, often with bed sheets, Styrofoam sheets, or tinfoil. Blackout blinds are a cost-effective way to reduce the amount of light coming in through a window. But, to get the most effective result from your blackout blinds, you’ll need to make sure they are installed in your bedroom and any connecting room.

Sounds silly, right? Of course you would install blackout blinds in all connecting rooms. You’d be surprised how many people don’t. There are many people who will install blackout blinds on only one or two windows where the light is coming in the brightest. However, you may not realize how much light is coming in through other windows in your room because the other bright windows overpower it.

For the best result from your blackout blinds, you should install them on every window, even if you don’t think much light comes in through one. In a master suite, this means you need to cover all the windows in your bedroom, any sitting areas, the bathroom, and the closet. Once your room is darker, you’ll notice every other source of light.

Blackout Blinds in Media Rooms

Media rooms really got popular when everyone had money to burn. Now that money is tighter, media rooms may seem like something we can’t afford. While we may not be able to afford the media room of the past with the huge projector screen and movie-theater seating, there are things you can do to make your room feel more like a media room.

Media rooms are dark. Consider painting the room a darker color: dark grays, browns, or reds really give the "theater" look. Since many of us don’t have an extra room in the basement with no windows, you’ll also want to cover the windows. This is where blackout blinds come into play.

First, decide on your favorite type of blackout blind. I suggest a darkly stained wood blackout blind or a darkly stained faux wood blackout blind. These will really add to the "moody" atmosphere you’re trying to create. If that’s too dark for you, consider a lighter stain or painted blackout blinds. For a really dramatic look, I suggest choosing cloth tapes over routeless blinds, and selecting a light color for major contrast between the cloth tapes and darkly stained wood. Choosing routeless blinds will give you a seamless look and doesn’t cost any extra (cloth tapes may).

For extra help in blocking out all of the light, you should consider choosing an outside mount for your blackout blinds. This means that the blinds will cover the entire window, not hang inside the window casing. This is great to keep light from seeping in from between the blinds and window casing. You can create a very dramatic and contemporary look by extending your blinds 6 – 8 inches past the window casing. When you open the slats, it will look like a very contemporary media room.

There are many different ways you can use blackout blinds: they don’t need to be your mother’s standard window blind.