The use of chemicals to clean your home has always been a controversial topic of discussion, especially for those who have children, as many can be quite toxic and harmful for little ones and pets. But many also believe that natural cleaning solutions are impractical, take too much time and do not properly clean the surfaces they are meant to, leaving the hose not as disinfected and sparkling as they had hoped while wasting even more time. But there might be one natural cleaning solution that you might not have heard of, and that is using onions to clean your windows.
Cleaning glass is truly one of the most frustrating tasks when it comes to house chores. There is always some residue left and it is really hard to make it sparkle and streak-free without a lot of elbow grease and careful planning, especially if you are using traditional cleaning methods like vinegar, as it often dries up too quick and leaves at least one streak per window. Commercial products are much nicer in that regard, in fact, many do not even need to be dried by a cloth in order to not leave a mark, but as we have said they can be quite toxic and thus harmful to both health and the environment.
This is likely the main reason why many are willing to suffer through the pain of using natural cleaners, but what if you did not have to suffer any more and using an onion was just as easy as using a spray from the store?
The Onion Method for Cleaning Glass
This method is as quick and easy as it seems and the only thing you need to do is rub an onion on the glass and then dry it with a microfiber cloth. By doing just this, you can achieve a perfect, streak-free finish with little effort. Plus, unlike some other homemade remedies, onions do not leave behind unpleasant smells or sticky residue the slight initial smell evaporates quickly leaving nothing behind except for clean glass (and maybe a tear or two).
The reason why this method works despite being somewhat out there is that onion has a strong degreasing power. Its sulfur compounds help break down dirt stuck to the glass, leaving a clean and shiny surface, but it also helps to reduce fogging on mirrors and windows.
There is one caveat to this method though, the onion you use for this task must be fresh and juicy, as if it is dry or overripe, it may lose some of its cleaning properties and make an even bigger mess than it cleans. To use it just cut it in half without fully peeling it, but remove the outer layer if it is fragile and it could begin to shed. That is just for convenience, as it will not affect the cleaning process one way or another.
Then just rub the cut side of the onion on the glass using circular motions, making sure to cover the entire surface and paying extra attention to any especially dirty spots. Because it does leave an initial residue of water and enzymes, you will still need to wipe down the window to dry it, but we recommend doing this with a microfiber cloth in order to avoid other materials contaminating the work you just did with lint. If the window is particularly dirty you might need to do it a couple of times or just “wash” the window once before with warm water, leaving just the tougher marks for the onion to get out.
As a last piece of advice, try to always clean your windows in warm but not hot days, as humidity and direct sunlight are both bad if you do not like streaking, onion or not.