How to Clean Glass Door, Tempered Glass, Glass Windows, & Mirrors?

Hate the fingerprints, streaks and messes on glass surfaces around your home? Regular wiping with your kitchen cloth and plain old water sure won't work!

If you find that your mirrors and glass surfaces tend to have streaks and stains even after a good wipe down, you may want to try these cheap glass cleaning methods to get rid of them.

How to Clean Tempered Glass?

While tougher than regular glass, tempered glass is not altogether indestructible. Here’s how to maintain your tempered glass furniture and minimise the risk of breakage.

Glass furniture impart an elegant, sophisticated touch to your home but require care in maintaining clarity, cleanliness and safety.

Tempered glass may be classified as safety glass, and is thrice to five times durable than normal annealed glass but it's not altogether indestructible. There has been news of tempered glass suddenly shattering, which can result in severe lacerations and bleeding.

While shocking when it happens, however, tempered glass is actually designed to shatter into many small fragmented pieces in the event of breakage. This safety component helps diminish the risk of injury, since it doesn’t break into large jagged shards like annealed glass does. Here's how to care for your glass furniture to keep it safe and last for years to come.

5 Tips for caring for tempered glass

• Handle with care and be gentle.
• Avoid impacting the side or edges of the glass, as this is where it is most vulnerable.
• Clean it regularly. Spraying a mixture of ordinary dish soap and water will suffice, with a soft sponge, followed by a soft, non-abrasive cleaning cloth to buff it dry.
• Remove stubborn stains with a glass-cleaner and a damp cloth.
• Consider installing a film on glass windows or barriers at home that can hold broken glass together if it breaks.

8 Common mistakes with tempered glass

• Place very hot or cold items in direct contact with the glass surface. Extreme temperatures can cause thermal shock, which can in turn lead to stress and shattering. Use tablecloths, placemats or coasters to protect it.
• Sit or stand on glass surfaces
• Ignore chips and small cracks. A chip or even a scratched surface can weaken the glass and subsequently cause the entire piece to shatter.
• Do not strike the glass with hard or pointed items.
• Use the glass as a chopping surface.
• Use washing powder or cleaning solutions with abrasives as these can scratch and damage the glass surface. 
• Expose it to prolonged periods of sunlight. It's possible for fluctuating temperatures in your home (when it heats up in the day or cools down at night, for example) to cause spontaneous shattering.
• Drag heavy or rough items over the glass top. 

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How to Clean Glass Windows?

Most glass cleaners work well on weather-beaten windows, but if you’re still left with streaks and spots, it could be due to the way you are cleaning the surface. Use a squeegee instead of an old rag. This simple tool has a rubber ridge at the end of its handle, which is great for gently scraping the surface of your window without leaving streaks.

To avoid drips or having to go over your window twice, always clean from top to bottom. If the corners of the window have dust residue stuck in them, clean them out with cotton buds. Clean your windows on a cool, cloudy day. Extremely hot days can dry out your windows too quickly, leaving you with water marks.

• Vinegar: Mix with an equal amount of warmwater. Pour the solution into a spray bottle and use like a regular cleaner. Be careful not to let it drip on wood frames or windowsills as the acetic acid in vinegar may discolour the wood and iron.
• Rubbing Alcohol & Mouthwash: Great for day-to-day cleaning of spots and smudges on mirrors.
• Crumpled Newspaper: This does a better job of cleaning and polishing glass than ordinary paper towels. It gives mirrors a sparkling shine and keeps drip marks from drying on the surface.
• Toothpaste: Eliminate marks and tiny scratches by polishing the affected area with a small amount of toothpaste.

Glass windows yearly maintenance

Window fittings need to be lubricated at least once a year, with all moving parts receiving a drop of oil, experts say. The window seals also need to be kept clean, according to technical specialists from Germany's Verband Fenster + Fassade, an association for window manufacturers.

Specialist products for these rubber parts can help to keep them soft and maintain proper sealing. The drainage hole at the bottom of the windows can also be cleaned with a small screwdriver to ensure rainwater drains through.

Avoid scraping your glass windows

Even if windows are very dirty, aggressive chemical cleaning agents, blades and scrapers should be avoided.

Standard window cleaning agents are usually enough, and in the case of grease and oil, white spirit should do the trick. The technical specialists recommend using plenty of water on the outside in particular, where grains of sand and dust can become stuck to the glass. Cleaning windows with a cloth or window rubber without sufficient water can cause scratches. It is also important to rinse off cleaning agents thoroughly when the job is done.

This section was written by Simone A Mayer for Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

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How to Clean Glass Doors?

Fluted glass doors can be difficult to clean, but try this homemade tool that will clean out every nook and cranny.

Cut a lemon in half and dip the cut surface into salt. Use the salted surface to scrub the doors. Keep dipping your lemon into salt crystals, which act as a scrub that will clean between the crevices. This works great on smooth surfaces, too.

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How to Clean Mirrors?

You might think it is an old wives’ tale, but using newspapers to clean mirrors really works!

The thin material absorbs dirt or liquid on the surface of the glass, instead of pushing it around and leaving streaks. If you don’t mind getting your hands a little dirty, clean your mirrors with two balls of scrunched up newspaper. Dampen the first ball and use that to wipe the mirror, then use the second dry piece to go over the slightly damp surface till it looks bright and shiny.

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