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Mini Blinds Now Doing Common Duty
Back in the late 70's and early 80's the mini blinds replaced the venetian blind as blind of choice and was raised to royalty status.
People were replacing their wall to wall ceiling to floor drapes and coming out of the dark thanks to the mini.
The Venetian blind had been available in white and alabaster while these blinds came in every color and tone you could imagine. The different manufactures would compete to see who could have the most and varied color slates.
They even poked holes in the slats to create the sheerview window blind. People couldn't wait to tear down their drapes and put these colorful mini's in their windows. It was like for the first time in their life they could be colorful and have fun. They didn't need to be closed in and drab anymore.
The soon found out that the blind they had replaced the Venetian blind with was a nightmare to clean. The one inch slates were not so graceful when it came to cleaning.
Enterprising people devised brushes to clean the mini. They looked like fingers that went between the slates to remove any accumulated dirt and grime.
The problem being you had to remove the brush every time you cane to a set of stings and ladders which was around every 15 to 20 inches. You then put the fingers back in and went another 15 inches. Boring, tedious and just plain not fun!
I think the only place you can find some of those cleaning brushes is at the dollar store where they are still trying to get rid of the inventory.
If your interested in how to clean these blind we have a web page devoted to cleaning metal window blinds you will want to check out.
Over time as their blinds wore out or they moved in to a new house people replaced the mini with wood blinds and faux wood blinds Today the mini is still available but in a much diminished capacity. Gone are the 100's of color choices with just the most popular 30 or so colors left. Enough to give you a good color choice but nothing compared to what once was.
The discount and big box stores have even added to the disgrace by making them common. You can now buy them in either white or alabaster ready to take home or if need be the stores will cut them to your size-width only though-so you can take them home with you.
They even introduced a vinyl mini blind. In the realm once reserved for the stately aluminum slat they now offer a vinyl slatted blind. You can get a 36"w x 64"l vinyl slatted mini for $4 at some discount stores.
Mini blinds have gone from their regal beginnings to common place acceptance creating a niche for themselves that will be hard to replace. They have done all of this in 30 years or so. I wonder what the next thirty years has in store for the mini blind.
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