The cleaning mistakes making your mirrors look cloudy and streaky

There are plenty of items that can get away with looking a little worse for wear, but mirrors are not one of them. A cloudy and streaky mirror is a frustrating sight that looks even worse in bright light.

If yours keep looking this way no matter how much you clean them, there are likely a few simple mistakes causing the problem. But professional cleaner and owner of Housekeeping Heroes, Sara Allan, told nine.com.au they are easy to fix.

The first mistake that can make your mirrors look dirtier than when you started cleaning them is using the wrong cleaning product, which “leaves behind a product residue with surfactants that don’t evaporate off the surface like glass cleaning products and creates a lot of re-work”. 

Allan called out multipurpose cleaners specifically, advising they’re not meant to be used on mirrors or glass.

“When choosing the right glass cleaner, you are looking for one that can also be used on tinted glass and mirrors, so a pH neutral product is always the best option as it is strong enough to remove debris, but gentle enough to evaporate from the surface ensuring a streak free finish at all times,” she said.

If you don’t have a glass cleaner on hand or want to try a cheap DIY option, the Sydney cleaner recommended adding 25ml of dishwashing liquid to a spray bottle and filling with water.

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Another common mistake leaving mirrors cloudy and streaky is using too much cleaning product as it leaves residue on the surface.

“A lot of people assume the soapier the surface the better the result, but it is completely the opposite as you never want an extremely soapy glass surface. Less is more,” she said.

“When it comes to how much of a product to use, I always recommend for a vanity mirror one spray of product, and for a wardrobe mirror door two to three sprays of product and that is plenty.”

With your product sorted you’ll also need the right tools, which are microfibre cloths or a synthetic glass cleaning cloth and a squeegee.

“The two processes to clean a glass or mirror surface are: spray a glass cleaning product onto a mirror and scrub using a sponge and then wipe away all residue with a cloth, or spray a glass cleaning product onto a mirror, scrub with a sponge, then squeegee dry the mirror and then use a synthetic glass cleaning cloth to wipe over and buff away any remaining residue.”

When you go to start cleaning your mirrors, there’s one more thing you’ll need to do to get a crystal-clear result, and that’s turning off the lights.

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“Lighting plays a huge part when cleaning mirrored surfaces, and that is because the heat from lights warms the glass, which doesn’t allow a product to stay on the surface as it evaporates far too quickly and leaves behind a residue,” Allan said.

“Cleaning a mirror, for example, on a vanity that has lights reduces and hides buildup or smears, hence you won’t see the spots until the lights are turned off, so cleaning mirrors should always be done without lights on.

“When I finish cleaning a mirror, I will then turn on a light to double-check the mirrored surface from all angles to make sure I haven’t missed any spots.”