Lead-Safe Resources

Next, you can use damp paper towels, generic or real Swiffer Wet mop pads. What you use here depends on how much money you want to spend. Paper towels may seem cheap, but you may use quite a few getting the window clean and Swiffers can be expensive. Either way, you can only use wet paper towels or Swiffers once and then you must throw them away. 

DO NOT reuse paper towels or Swiffers from one window to another. This could spread lead dust and contaminate each window.

Don’t use… I repeat, don’t ever use a wet cloth rag or towel. This is a big NO – NO. Again, this could spread lead dust and contaminate each window. 

Start at the top and spray the window frame bottom, then the channels and then the trough. Spray the corners really well. You notice with a hard spray the dirt in the corners starts to lift away. Let the water soak in for a minute. 

With vertical windows, you have to make sure you clean the weather stripping on the bottom of the window frame. Once the weather stripping is clean, start with a fresh clean paper towel or wet mop. 

Start at the top wiping the window frame bottom and then wipe out the window channels in one direction. Lastly, wipe the trough. Spray into the corner again and release as much of the leftover dirt as possible. Use a new towel or wet mop pad and wipe the window trough clean once again. 

After your done with one window, change your gloves, throw away all used paper towels or wet mop pads and start on the next window. 

This could be a big job if you have a lot of windows. I like to break down the cleaning into smaller bits. Instead of thinking… wow, I have a lot of windows to do, I will do a couple windows one week, then a couple more the next. Eventually, you will have all your windows done. Cleaning the window channels and troughs should be a normal part of your cleaning schedule. Once you have the windows all done, start from the beginning and clean a couple at a time. This takes a big job and breaks it down into much smaller bits.

I like to always say wipe in one direction. Sometimes this isn’t possible. The goal of the job is to get the window trough clean. This way if young children put their fingers into the window trough then into their mouth, they won’t be ingesting lead dust. Lead dust is invisible.

First things first… test your children for lead poisoning:

Call 1-800-424-LEAD or 1-800-424-5323