Most roller blinds only need dusting and an occasional wipe with warm water and a little mild soap. Do not soak the fabric, do not put it in a washing machine, and never roll a blind up while it is still damp.
Dust it before you touch water
Lower the blind all the way down. Run a dry microfibre cloth down the fabric from the top to the bottom, in one direction, rather than back and forth. A vacuum with the soft brush head on the lowest suction setting does the same job faster on a large blind.
Do both sides if you can reach them. Dust settles on the window side too, and on a sunscreen it sits down inside the weave. Every couple of months is plenty in a normal bedroom, more often in a kitchen or on a street facing window.
Spot cleaning blockout fabric
Blockout has a coated back, usually two or three passes of acrylic or PVC. That coating is tougher than it looks, but it does not get on with solvents. A few drops of plain dish soap in warm water is all you need.
Dampen the cloth, do not wet it. Blot the mark instead of scrubbing at it, then go over the spot with a second cloth in clean water so you are not leaving a soap ring behind. If the mark is obvious, work across the whole width of the panel, because cleaning one small circle can leave a clean patch that stands out more than the mark did.
The thing to avoid is creasing. Fold a blockout hard and the coating can crack, and a cracked line shows as a bright streak the moment the sun sits behind it.
Sunscreen mesh needs a lighter touch
Sunscreen is a mesh with an openness factor, often 3% or 5%, so the gaps in the weave collect dust and cooking grease. A soft sponge with warm water and mild soap, worked gently along the weave, lifts most of it out.
Do not scrub hard. The mesh is woven and PVC coated, and a stiff brush or a scourer will fray the threads and open the weave up unevenly, which shows as a patch of lighter fabric. Rinse with a clean damp sponge and leave the blind down.
Bathrooms, kitchens and mould spots
Black spotting on a bathroom blind is mould, and it starts where a blind gets rolled up damp with the door shut. Wipe the spots with mild soapy water, rinse them off, then leave the blind fully down with the window open and the fan running until it is bone dry.
Keep neat bleach away from the fabric. It strips colour out of a blockout backing and it can wreck the coating on a mesh. If you want something stronger than soap, dilute it well and test it on the bottom 100mm of the blind first, where nobody is looking.
The parts that are not fabric
- Wipe the aluminium bottom rail. It picks up more grime than the fabric does and it is the easiest part of the whole blind to clean.
- Run a damp cloth over the brackets and down the chain. A gritty chain makes a clutch feel rough long before anything is actually wrong with it.
- Check the cleat or tensioner is still screwed firmly to the wall. Under the Australian rules a loose chain must not be able to form a loop of 220mm or more within 1600mm of the floor.
- Clear the sill. A wet sill sitting under a bottom rail is where fabric edges start to mark and wick.
Give it time to dry, properly
This is the step people skip. Leave the blind fully down for at least two hours after any wet cleaning, and longer in winter or in a room with no airflow. Roll damp fabric onto a tube and you trap moisture between the layers, which is how a freshly cleaned blind ends up musty and spotted a fortnight later.
A quick routine that works: dust every couple of months, wipe the bottom rail and chain at the same time, and give the fabric a proper wipe down once or twice a year.
There is a point where cleaning stops helping. If the fabric has faded unevenly, the backing has cracked along an old crease, or a stain has gone right through, the honest answer is that the blind is done and a new one is the fix. We will tell you straight either way. If you are at that stage, our free measure and quote covers it, and you can browse the roller blind range, compare blockout fabrics for bedrooms or look at sunscreen mesh for living areas before we come out.
Common questions
Can roller blinds be taken down and washed?
No. Soaking or machine washing a roller blind ruins it, because blockout has a coating on the back and sunscreen is a bonded mesh. Both are made to be wiped in place. Clean them hanging, fully down, and then leave them down to dry out.
How do I get mould spots off a bathroom blind?
Wipe them with warm water and a little mild soap, rinse with a clean damp cloth, then leave the blind fully down with the fan running until it is completely dry. Keep neat bleach off the fabric, it strips the colour and damages the coating.
How often should roller blinds be cleaned?
Dust them every couple of months, more often in a kitchen or on a busy road. A proper wipe down once or twice a year is usually enough after that. Sunscreen mesh in a kitchen needs it more often, because grease settles into the weave.