How to Clean Window Tracks With a Paper-Towel Roll

There’s something so oddly satisfying about vacuuming. Watching every speck of dirt and dust disappear makes us truly feel like our home is spotless — except when we encounter those hard-to-reach nooks and crannies around our windows that seem impossible to clean. And that’s where a simple paper-towel roll transforms into a genius cleaning tool.

The most expensive vacuum could come with all the attachments in the world, but nothing will give your windows a better, deeper, more thorough clean than the dozens of cardboard paper-towel rolls lying around your house right now. Windows are an often neglected area of the house, but giving them a good polish can change your outlook on life — literally.

How to Clean Window Tracks With a Paper Towel Roll

Because most vacuums don’t come with an attachment that makes cleaning window tracks easy, we wind up having to go in with a wet paper towel or a Clorox wipe to scrub it up ourselves — and that’s if we can even be bothered! Using this clever cleaning hack, you can really attack that annoying space between the window sill and the screen with minimal effort. Here’s how to clean window tracks with a paper-towel roll in three easy steps.

Remove your vacuum’s head and attach an empty paper towel roll to the end.
Vacuum your window tracks. The great thing about using a paper towel tube is that you have a flexible vacuum head that can mold to the shape of your window tracks, no matter how tight they are.
Step back and marvel at your clean windows, wondering why you didn’t try this sooner.

If you have a house full of kids, messes are inevitable — so you probably go through more rolls of paper towels than you’d like to admit. While these cardboard cylinders are great for kids’ crafts, they’re also the perfect DIY flexible vacuum head.