I keep my screens on year round. I am afraid the screens would be damaged in storage.

I have storm window/screen combination over old double hung windows- 40 of them. I HATE washing windows! HATE IT! When I wash them, I have to take the storms off, wash the top and bottom storm windows and the screen - and then was the actual windows. They are the original windows from the 20's, so they do not tilt.

Worst. Chore. Ever.

I live in the country and it gets very dirty.

Can you not just use a water hose from the outside to spray the screens?
I get a bottle of cleaner that attaches to the hose and mixes the cleaner with the water in the appropriate mixture. Then I clean the insides.
However I have found a recipe for a homemade cleaner that is sworn to be the best ever. Here it is if you want to try it out and let us know. This is quoted from the linked site which shows nice pictures.
And this can be put in a spray bottle and used inside as well but you will have to dry up the water. So make up a batch, fill your spray bottle first, then you have enough to do both.

Homemade Streak-Free Window Cleaner

1/2 bottle of âÂÂJet Dryâ (the bottle I bought was just under 7 ounces so I measured out 3.5 ounces)
4 Tablespoons Alcohol (I used rubbing alcoholâ¦.70% I believe)
1/4 Cup Ammonia
1 handful of powdered dish-washer soap (which depending on the size of your hand could probably vary quite a bit! lol. I used a âÂÂhandfulâ which looked to me to be about 1/4 cup. Give or take.)
2 Gallons of Hot Water

Here is a link that might be useful: Window cleaner

I feel your pain, IowaGirl. The blowing winds and clouds of farm soil make me cringe. This summer was particularly bad since everything is so dry.

The larger farms here are taking out so many of the long, wide wind-row trees. They were originally planted to ward off the 1930s-type dust storm damage. I guess we do have to repeat history; I just wish I wasn't in the line-of-fire.

We're in an old, small house and have been slowly replacing the windows. The old ones were just like yours; cleaning was a nightmare involving ladders, agony, and anquish...and I have only nine windows (not counting the 10 temporary ones on the back porch/sunroom which will someday be a four-seasons porch).

We replaced the windows in the three bedrooms first; last summer we did the two in the kitchen, and soon the last two in the living room will be done. I do have a safe place to store the screens.

Forty Windows! Oh my. I can imagine how light and beautiful it is inside your home; but the cost to replace them? Oh my. And the agony to clean them? Again, oh my! Do you have an army of children you could indenture for the job? LOL

Hi RavenCajun...I'll try your cleaning solution this Spring when it's time for the Big Clean!

A water hose! LOL I have several, but the pump and outside well, which supplies all the water to the outside spigots, is still waiting for repair. I've been "on the list" all summer long and still no water.

We have city water in the house, but all the outside spigots are fed from the (free) well water. I was so desperate for garden water this summer I ran a hose from my mudroom sink, out the back door (which had to stay open the entire time) around the house and to the gardens.

I've forgone the fall screen cleaning and washed the sashes and frames with a bucket of hot water and a Mr. Clean/Vinegar and a sprinkle of TSP formula. I then rinse them with fresh hot water and finish with a Windex spritz.

I'm left wondering if it's better to leave the screens off for the winter, or put them back up. If I do put them up I'll put them in the shower and give them a lick and a promise to hold them until Spring.

I have a sneaky suspicion they'll pass the winter in a corner of the sun porch with a table in front of them for added bump protection.

We live in the country and the screens were horrible to clean--plus they aren't pretty. So I took all the screens out years ago, and they are safely stored in the attic--for the next owners of the house, if they want them.

The windows look better, and it's no longer the worst job in the world to clean them. Because I have severe allergies, I never open the windows anyway, so that's not an issue.

We have the double hung windows with the full window screens in our sun room (6 windows). I put in the 2 screens that face north.... couldn't imagine putting them in and out for the seasons. I leave those 2 in year round. The 4 other windows face east and I have never put the screens in them. I get too much light streaming in those windows and I think the screens would always look dirty so like Wanda we just don't open those 4 windows. I just washed my windows today... will see how they look when the sun shines again. :) I tried a new window washing recipe... 2 cups water, 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol, 1/4 cup white vinegar and 1 tbsp cornstarch. Put all in a spray bottle and shake well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Where I got the window washing recipe

I have over 40 windows too. ...11 alone in the sunroom I'm in right now. They are the old fashioned storm windows and we wash the second floor in the spring and the downstairs in the fall. I take out all screens because I like shiny windows to look thru.

I'm in a second floor condo, also with tilt in windows (22 of them). Some are huge because of the 100 year old house. I really like clean windows but it is such a chore that I do it only once per year, in spring cleaning. I take everything apart to clean, then bring the screens to the bathtub. I put an old towel in the bathtub to avoid scratching it, and then wash and rinse the screens in the shower. Yes, it is messy but it beats hauling them all outside to spray with the hose. I then put them back on the windows because I really don't want to trek them all down to the storage area. Plus the weather is so fickle here (MN) that I often need to open windows at least a bit during winter and early spring days, so screens are needed year round.

I take mine out for the winter.

One of the reasons we got new windows was becasue of the damage (etching) done to the windows by the screens being left in full time by the previous owner.

PLUS they get so dirty! Taking them out is the best way I found to clean them.

The huge bonus: wonderful, bright windows all winter long. Screens really cut down the amount of light entering a room!

Oh.. and I also sometimes crack a window during the winter... no screens don't matter, as there are no bugs in the winter (at least here in PA).