How to Clean Windows With a Squeegee, Step by Step
The exact professional step by step for cleaning a window with a squeegee, from mixing your solution to detailing the edges.
Most window cleaning guides skip the technique and just tell you to buy something. This one does the opposite. Here is the exact step by step method I have used for twenty five years, the same process whether it is a kitchen window or a shopfront. Follow it in order and you will get a clean, streak free result the first time.
What you need
A squeegee with a fresh rubber, a T-bar applicator or scrubber, a bucket, clean water with a small squirt of dish soap, and a few 100% cotton towelling rags. That is a full professional kit and it costs under $150. You do not need anything from the supermarket cleaning aisle.
Step 1: Mix your solution
Fill your bucket with clean, cool water and add a small squirt of dish soap. Light is right. Too much soap leaves a film that dries into streaks. You want just enough to help the water spread and let the applicator glide.
Step 2: Wet and agitate the glass
Dip the applicator, wring off the excess, and work it across the whole pane. Push into the corners and along the edges. The goal here is to agitate the dirt so it dissolves, ready for the squeegee to shave away. Do not rush this. The clean is won at this step, not with the squeegee.
Step 3: Make your first squeegee stroke
Start at a top corner. Hold the squeegee at about forty five degrees and pull it across or down in one smooth pass, following the dry edge of the glass. Keep a loose, wrist led grip. That first stroke gives you a clean, dry line to work from.
Step 4: Wipe the blade, then overlap
Wipe the rubber with a dry cotton rag. Now make your next stroke, overlapping the clean dry glass from the last one by an inch or so. Wipe the blade again. Repeat, pass by pass, wiping every time, until the whole pane is clear. Wiping between strokes is the habit that kills streaks.
Step 5: Detail the edges
The last drops always sit at the bottom edge and in the corners. Run a dry cotton rag around the frame and along the bottom to catch them. This step, detailing, is the difference between clean and professionally clean.
Step 6: Check in the light
Step back and look at the glass from an angle, in the light. If you see a streak, it is almost always a spot you missed with the applicator or a drop you left at the edge. A quick touch up with the rag fixes it. Over time you will need this step less and less.
A note on speed
Your first windows will be slow. That is normal and it is temporary. As the movements become familiar, the same window that took you ten minutes takes three. Do not chase speed. Chase clean, and speed follows on its own.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the correct order to clean a window?
Mix a light soapy solution, wet and agitate the glass with an applicator to loosen the dirt, then clear the water with a squeegee in overlapping strokes, wiping the blade between each one. Finish by detailing the edges with a dry cotton rag. Preparation before the squeegee is the part most people skip.
How much soap should I use?
Only a small squirt of dish soap in a bucket of clean water. Too much soap is a leading cause of streaks, because the film it leaves dries on the glass. You want just enough to help the applicator glide and spread the water.
Why does the window still streak after I squeegee?
Usually because the dirt was not fully agitated first, the blade was not wiped between strokes, or a drop was left at the edge. Loosen the dirt properly before the squeegee, wipe the rubber after every pass, and detail the edges. A fresh rubber helps too.
About the author
Justin Orloff is a professional window cleaner with over 25 years of experience, based in Vienna, Austria. He created the world's first AR-powered window cleaning training program at orloffs.com.