The mirror is probably one of the most-used and least-comprehended parts of your home. Although it’s easy to think that putting away dirty laundry, sweeping the floors, or organizing the kids’ toys will make the mirror situation better, that’s not actually how mirrors work. Mirrors are reflections; they are reflections of themselves. Without a clear understanding of how mirrors work and how to clean them, you’ll be throwing away half your time just trying to reach for a shirt or correct a reflection. Nowhere is this more true than when you have kids in the house. Kids love reflections; they get excited by what they see and often copy what they see. However, because mirrors are reflections, you may find them scattering glitter all over the walls or smearing lipstick all over themselves when doing their makeup. If you struggle with messy bathrooms, stains on counters from coffee latte
How To Clean A Mirror With No Streaks?
1) You can clean mirrors with vinegar, but you have to be careful. The first thing to do is make sure that the mirror has no cracks. If there are any cracks, then you should not do this, because vinegar will eat away at the glass and make it even more susceptible to breaking.
2) You can also use a mixture of equal parts water and rubbing alcohol, but this is only for mirrors that are made of glass or plastic. You can also use this mixture on any part of your home that is made out of glass or plastic. This includes windows, kitchen cabinets, and shower doors.
3) If you want to clean the mirror without leaving streaks behind you should use newspaper instead of paper towels or rags when cleaning the mirror with vinegar or rubbing alcohol. The newspaper will absorb all the liquid without leaving any streaks behind on your mirror.
4) Before cleaning your mirror with vinegar or rubbing alcohol, it is a good idea to remove anything from around it that could get wet and cause damage when you clean it with either one of these liquids. It’s also a good idea to cover up anything in your bathroom around it so that it doesn’t get wet either and leave water spots behind after you dry off your mirror after cleaning it.
5) If you have a mirror that is really dirty, you may want to consider taking it down and cleaning it with a mixture of water and vinegar or rubbing alcohol. However, if you do this, make sure that if there are any cracks in the mirror that they are facing downward so that the liquid doesn’t get behind them and weaken the integrity of your mirror even more. You should also put some newspaper down on the floor around where your mirror is going to be so that it doesn’t get damaged from any drips of liquid from cleaning it.
6) After cleaning your mirrors with either rubbing alcohol or vinegar, make sure that you dry them off with a clean towel. If you don’t then they will leave water spots behind on your mirrors when the surface dries out.
What Causes The Mirror To Streak?
1. Polishing the mirror
Polishing a mirror is the best way to clean it and remove any water spots. However, if you are not careful, you can cause damage to your mirror. The biggest problem that people have when polishing mirrors is that they don’t go all around the entire surface of the glass. Instead, they just polish one side or part of it, leaving behind streaks and water sports on the rest of the surface of the glass. You should always polish both sides of the mirror so that you can avoid streaks from forming on your mirrors. If you have large mirrors that have a pattern in them then make sure that you only polish one side of them until you are sure that this is working for you.
2. Using Windex instead of vinegar or rubbing alcohol
Many people use Windex to clean their mirrors because it’s inexpensive and readily available at most places where anyone would shop at anyway. However, Windex only works well with water spots on your windows and not on mirrors at all, so when cleaning your mirrors with Windex, they will still streak no matter how much time you spend drying them off using paper towels or rags afterwards.
3. Scrubbing hard
Overly scrubbing a mirror with a sponge or a cloth might cause cracks to form in it because when it gets pushed into areas such as along seams where there are many little cracks, these areas get pushed down into these cracks which causes pressure to build up in the cracks, causing them to crack.
4. Being rough with the mirror
When you clean your mirrors with a cloth, you might accidentally scratch or scrape your mirror while cleaning it and this could cause cracks or even break the glass. The safest and easiest way to clean your mirrors is by using a soft cloth and just wiping off any dirt or dust that may be on your mirror.
5. Placing something plastic on top of the mirror
When you clean your mirrors with anything that is not made of glass then it could leave behind scratches or grooves on the surface of the mirror from something hard like a small towel or newspaper that you are using. If you have large mirrors then this could result in big scratches from where the microfibers from whatever were used to dry off the mirror had been left on top of it after drying it off for most of their length.
Invest In A Quality Mirror
Over time, the mirror can get damaged from daily usage and from environmental hazards such as water sports on the mirror that are left over from cleaning with alcohol.
The surface of the mirror might get scratched or damaged by any dust or dirt that might fall on it while you are using it and still keep holding your toothbrush to clean your teeth afterward.
A good quality mirror can be expensive but will often pay itself off in a much shorter time than a cheap mirror would, especially if you are using it every day to see which direction you need to face if you have a lot of objects around it in your bathroom or bedroom so that there are no blind spots in which something might happen before you spot it coming at you, such as dashing into a room and tripping over something.
A quality mirror will have a thick, hard, and smooth surface, without any scratches or pinpricks on it. It will also not have any cracks, pinholes, or large scratches on it because of a blunt object being used while cleaning it with anything other than a soft cloth and then wiping it with a soft cloth afterward.
You will pay good money for mirrors but you will be able to appreciate the quality of it because you can see the reflection in them and know that the surface is smooth for that reflection to be clear and strong in the mirror.
You will not have to worry about buying another mirror when yours gets damaged from daily usage. The main reason why people don’t buy quality mirrors is that they think they are too expensive, but if you do the math at how much your mirrors would last before having to replace them, it is actually cheaper in the long run by purchasing amazing mirrors like these over cheap ones from an online store such as Amazon.com rather than paying full price for cheap ones from your local hardware store.
Don’t Be Afraid To Use A Little Elbow Grease
People that do not use quality mirrors are afraid to use a little elbow grease in their daily life to keep them in good condition. Extra effort is required to take care of your mirror.
They might be afraid of ruining the mirror by using too much elbow grease for it and breaking the mirror, but if you know how many cheeky things go on in bathrooms and bedrooms and what is needed to keep them clean, you will be able to realize that it should take very little elbow grease at all for your mirror to stay as you want it without being damaged from cleaning with too much elbow grease.
If you use too much elbow grease, sure enough, any damage will still happen because there would still be some damage left over after that lapse of time or after you get rid of the abrasive objects bringing the damage onto your mirror. You have gotten what comes with a cheaper, soft, and scratchy surface that could not handle being used with too much elbow grease.
The best way to avoid doing this is just reading this article and also explaining why people do not buy mirrors like these but instead pay full price for cheap ones (that they probably would end up having to replace as quickly as they bought them!) from online stores such as Amazon.com before going out and purchasing one yourself. That way, you will know what kind of mirror you want before buying it then only pay for the price tag rather than the fake quality label that comes with a cheaper mirror.
Conclusion
Mirrors are one of the most common places to find a mess. Whether you have a toddler in the house or a busy professional, mirrors are the easiest place to get things wrong. The trick to getting the most out of your mirrors is to look in them often and clean them thoroughly. When you do, you’ll be surprised how well your house looks reflected back at you.
