How often should you clean your windows in Ottawa?

• Winter salt spray. Five months of road salt leaves a fine white film on every pane facing a street, and it does not rinse off in the rain - it bonds until it is properly washed.
• Spring grit. The sand and grit laid down all winter gets kicked up until the street sweepers finish their rounds, usually through May.
• The pollen drop. Late May is peak pollen. Clean before it and you are paying to have yellow film reapplied within a week - which is exactly why the best spring window starts mid May, not the first warm weekend.
• Fall tannins. Wet leaves against glass and frames leave brown staining. An early-fall clean, before the drop, avoids scrubbing it off later.

Visit one - mid May to mid June. The salt film, winter grime and pollen come off together. This is the clean that makes the biggest visible difference of the year.

Visit two - early September to mid October. Summer dust off, glass clear for the low winter sun, done before leaf-drop and freeze-up.

Summer cleans (mid June through August) are fine - there is simply a little more airborne dust, so the result does not last quite as long as the two prime windows.

• Living on a main road - traffic film builds noticeably faster.
• Construction nearby - drywall and concrete dust bond to glass; add a clean when it wraps.
• Sprinklers hitting the glass - hard-water spotting etches if it sits for a season. Re-aim the head, then clean.
• Dogs and kids at the patio door - realistically that one pane is a monthly wipe no matter what the rest of the house does.

Mostly it is cosmetic - but not entirely. Hard-water spots and salt film left for years can etch into glass, screens loaded with grit wear faster, and letting grime build in the frame tracks is how sliders start to stick. A twice-a-year rhythm is as much about keeping the hardware smooth as the view clear.