Easily Clean Your Screen Doors With A Household Staple

Even the most fastidious of house cleaners have occasional days where they miss a spot. But for the rest of us cleaning mortals, there's an area we might not regularly think to clean, and that's our window and door screens. Cleaning them with soap and water can be a hassle, and taking them off their tracks to clean them with a hose can be a pain, but there's a quick way to get all the grime off them — by using a regular old lint roller.

Screens are magnets for lint, pollen, dust, cobwebs, and all the other junk that accumulates. But since that's the point of the screens — to let the air in and keep the gunk and bugs out — that's a good thing. But if you allow it to accumulate too much, the airflow will be compromised, so cleaning your screens on a regular basis is a good idea.

The lint rollers work because, like the lint or pet hair on a sweater, they're sticky enough to pick up the debris, but not so strong that they won't stick to the screens themselves.

While technically you could just have at your screen doors with the lint roller any which way you want, there are some techniques that can make your cleaning endeavors more successful. The main thing to keep in mind is that since most of the accumulated dirt and debris come from outside, you'll ideally want to clean the screen door from the outside as well to make sure you lift away as much as possible. Make sure you hit the corners, too. You also want to have a firm but light touch, as you don't want to press too hard and damage the screen.

For an easier clean, you can get a small paint roller and put the lint roll on it. Then you can just roll it up and down across the screen as if you were painting. You'll also want to keep an eye on the roller tape and make sure to peel off a layer every time it gets full of gunk. Depending on how often you clean your screens, you might want to make sure you have a few refill rolls on hand as well.

Keep rolling over the screen until it comes away clean. And then breathe easy through your clean screen door!