How to Clean Windows, Glass, and Mirrors | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Ellen Airhart

Ellen Airhart writes about emergency preparedness and sanitation. She's used blood and dog excrement to test cleaning products.

Cleaning your windows can brighten your literal—and probably metaphorical—outlook on the world. With the right tools, a few minutes of work can last for months, giving you perfect clarity on the storms, pollen, dust, and spatters that get your glass so dirty in the first place.

Despite being made with the same materials as virtually every other cloth we tested, the Fixsmith cloths were the most absorbent and affordable, and they survived multiple washes.

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The Fixsmith Microfiber Cleaning Cloth offers great value, water-absorption power, and overall durability. However, most microfiber cloths work comparably well, and if you already have some you prefer, stick with them. In our window cleaning tests, against paper towels and newspapers, a damp microfiber cloth proved superior in getting a streak-free finish, especially for the final wipes on glass.

This adjustable nozzle’s smooth, consistent spray pattern works with acid solutions (such as the vinegar mixture we recommend), and it comes with a lifetime warranty.

The Mop Mob Leak-Free Acid Resistant Spray Head helped us evenly distribute the solution to best break down dirt and grit on filthy windows, with a smooth trigger that produced a controlled, consistent, cloud-like spray pattern and worked well using a vinegar solution or Windex. It felt sturdy compared with other spray nozzles we have used, whose internal components can break down and become gummy over time. Note: Bottles are sold separately, but these ones from the same brand make a matching set.

Handy for removing grit from large sections of exterior glass, this OXO squeegee works well as long as its stubby handle can reach the glass you’re trying to clean.

We’ve used the OXO Good Grips All-Purpose Squeegee over years of glass cleaning. The squeegee blade wipes effectively, but in a lot of window-cleaning scenarios its handle may be too short to reach the work. We’ll be testing extendable options in the future and seeking squeegees with a scrubber on one side and silicone blade on the other, per Snow’s recommendation. The Rain-X Windshield Squeegee Tool and the Unger Microfiber Window Squeegee and Scrubber fit both these specifications, but we haven’t tried them yet.

I’ve covered cleaning items for Wirecutter since 2022. In that time, I’ve written about brooms, all-purpose cleaners, mops, toilet plungers, and many other mess-busting tools. I’ve also attended the ISSA Show North America (a trade show for the cleaning industry). In preparation for testing, I read how-to articles from CNN, Architectural Digest, and This Old House; three product roundups from Good Housekeeping, Apartment Therapy, and a cleaning service called Marigold & Ivy; and two Reddit threads. I watched videos from Houston Window Experts and Scottsdale Window Cleaning Company and interviewed my co-workers about how they like to clean their windows.

After about six hours of testing, I spoke to Andy Telatnik, director of retail marketing at Bona, about my results and his opinions on using microfiber cloths to clean windows. I interviewed Daniel Snow, vice president of operations for Glass.com, a referral site for glass product providers in the US. We also consulted with Stephen Ashkin, who heads up the sustainability committee for ISSA, the Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association, where he advises many large cleaning corporations on environmental responsibility.

We wanted to find the combination of liquid and liquid-swiper that was best at making our glass windows sparkle. In order to find the perfect duo, we built tests that would factor in every possible variable. For our first test, we splattered toothpaste on a mirror at the office and let it dry overnight. We then divided up the mirror into eight squares with painter’s tape. For the first square, we wiped the toothpaste away with just a dry microfiber cloth. Then we used a newspaper to scrub away Sprayway, Windex, or our all-purpose cleaner pick. Once we discovered that vinegar was the best cleaner for this situation, we used the remaining three squares to wipe down vinegar with a paper towel, microfiber cloth, and squeegee.

We repeated this process on hard water in a shower, canola oil smeared on glass, and an external-facing New York City apartment window that hadn’t been cleaned for several years.

Rounding up your supplies and detaching your window may be the most time-consuming part of this process if you only have a few windows to worry about. The scrubbing itself shouldn’t take more than a few minutes per pane. We’ve been able to clean balcony doors in about 10 minutes per set, between squeegeeing, scrubbing, and wiping dry. You’re most likely to get good results on the first pass if you can clean on a warm, dry day and on windows out of direct sunlight.

Renters may not know most single- or double-hung apartment windows can unclasp and tilt inwards for a scrub-down. I thought I was stuck with dirty windows forever until senior staff writer Sabine Heinlein told me how to take mine down. I found two tabs at the top of my lower window, clamped those in, and then lowered the glass all the way down.

If you have other types of windows (like awning, casement, picture, or sliding windows), it might not be so easy to reach the outside. If you can safely stand outside on a balcony or ladder to clean them, that works. Just don’t lean out the window to try to clean them, especially if you live in a multistory building.

Don your gloves. To remove cobwebs and brush off loose dust, run the microfiber lightly over the glass and the metal or wood casing. Dust can get not only on the window itself, but also all the gaps and crevices around it.

For the dirtier exterior faces of windows, especially over large areas, you can save time and keep your cloths clean for the next steps by using a squeegee to clear away grit in an initial pass. Use a spray bottle of vinegar solution (or a spritz from a hose nozzle) to dampen and loosen dirt, then follow with the squeegee blade. The squeegee will push a mucky line of vinegar solution around, so plan for drips.

Wet the microfiber with the vinegar solution. Snow’s method is to dip it in a bucket, which can keep vinegar droplets contained, lowering the intensity of the smell. If you use a spray bottle, aim it at the cloth for the same reason. We’ve found it efficient to spray through the cloth and onto the glass.

Either way, don’t fully wet the cloth in the liquid—just spray it enough to dampen it, or dip an edge in, so a section of the microfiber cloth can soak up the solution.

Rub the cloth in a circular motion, no more than a couple square feet at a time, making sure both the cloth and the glass stay damp with cleaner while you go. Work down the glass from the top to the bottom, move methodically to cover everything, and use a little fresh solution to dig dirt out of the corners of the frame and between any mullions or muntins you may have.

A little soap can be helpful in a tricky spot, Snow said. A common tip from Andersen Windows and others: Don’t scrape with razor blades. If your cloth maintains a good wet edge while you wipe, you’ll see some moisture spots and streaks remaining on the glass as you finish this step.

To remove the traces of moisture and get the glass sparkling, pull out your clean, dry microfiber cloth and go over the same area again. When you’re ready to inspect, you should not be able to see any streaks or dust. View it at an angle, inspect through both sides of the glass if possible, and check for remaining grit in the corners and casing; those areas often need some more attention.

Many people we spoke to recommended newspapers for cleaning windows. We tried them, and they work, although microfiber was better at absorbing cleaning solution, streak-free wiping in the final stage, and also for removing hard water stains in general. If you do use newspapers, S&K Building Services advises that you use soy-based ink to prevent staining. If the ink comes off on your fingers, it’s not soy-based and may stain your windows. Coffee filters have the same texture, and you don’t have to worry about ink stains, according to Snow.

In tests with paper towels, we found most began to leave problematic specks of lint as the paper towel degraded. Cleaning this meant either following up with a microfiber cloth (which you could use, instead, at the same step) or going through a ton of paper towels. One useful role we did find for paper towels was cleaning up any drips coming off the squeegee. We were able to reuse a single paper towel to clean up these drips under several windows (and you don’t need a pristine new paper towel to do it).

Mirrors require the same steps as regular glass, but take special care to avoid getting liquid around the edges. Mirrors are backed with a silver coating, which eventually separates from the glass, according to Snow. This process causes the mirror to turn black. It’s inevitable with time, but moisture expedites this degradation.

While a vinegar mix can dissolve mineral soils effectively on a range of glass types in our tests, it is smelly, and mixing the solution at home adds a step you might want to bypass. Ashkin, a sustainable cleaning consultant, recommended using a ready-made mix certified by the nonprofit Green Seal or with the EPA Safer Choice program. Unfortunately, our all-purpose cleaner recommendation, which has a Safer Choice seal, was the least effective cleaner in our testing.

Ashkin also said that vinegar isn’t as effective at cleaning up grease, which was supported in our testing. If you have a particularly oily mess, we found that Windex was the most effective cleaner. In our tests, Windex worked best using a similar workflow as the vinegar mix: Clear the dust, squeegee the heavy dirt away, and then wipe and buff with damp and dry microfiber cloths.

The vinegar mix has advantages over Windex on versatility and affordability, but we wondered if Windex contained something special that could give it a particular edge. In an email statement, a Windex representative acknowledged that soap, water, and vinegar “can and do help clean glass.” They added that Windex contains “cleaning agents such as hexoxyethanol, isopropanolamine and lauramine oxide.” The company says that these ingredients “loosen dirt particles and deposits and dissolve residue.” The chemicals indeed perform those purposes, according to PubChem, a chemical database published by the National Institutes of Health. But they also come with their own baggage: Hexoxyethanol is marked as corrosive and an irritant, isopropanolamine is corrosive and an irritant, and lauramine oxide comes with the warning it’s corrosive, an irritant, and an environmental hazard. That said, the Windex safety data sheet (PDF) notes nothing in the cleaner is hazardous, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and there are no special classifications for inhalation or other exposure risks. And acetic acid—vinegar—is technically corrosive too, according to PubChem.

One last personal tip, and don’t ask how we know: When spraying Windex or a vinegar mix overhead, consider safety glasses or some other way to avoid getting it in your eyes.

This article was edited by Jen Gushue and Harry Sawyers.

Ellen Airhart

Ellen Airhart is an associate writer at Wirecutter, where she covers cleaning and emergency preparedness. Please email her with your biggest messes and most anxious thoughts.

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