Replacing a broken set of blinds in my house and apparently no one sells the old standard kind where you pull the cord to raise them, I guess because kids and/or pets could tangle in the cord? Bit of an education in miniblinds today.

  • Dharma Curious (he/him)
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    1 month ago

    Little trick I figured out as a kid in case you ever have the string blinds again (also, never seen stringless):

    Cut a string to the same length as the two coming out of the blinds, snip the little plastic cap off the two attached to the blinds, and braid the three strings together, tie at the end. Never pull unevenly again.

    • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      You can’t braid them together, they won’t go through the take-up mechanism when you drop them closed. I tried wrapping one with the same idea in mind and had to sit and unwrap them because I couldn’t close them anymore.

      You could just braid the bottom and set the braid with a knot, but that’s basically what the knot at the end and the cap do.

      • y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        Even if you braid it while the blinds are already closed it won’t work?

        I haven’t tried this yet but want to try when I get home. I worry about my cats getting tangled and one cord would be better than whatever the hell is going on with it now lol.

        • Dharma Curious (he/him)
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          1 month ago

          I’ve personally done it, but now I wonder if those blinds were somehow loose or different. Don’t wanna suggest you do it just to have to undo it if it doesn’t work :/

          • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            I can definitely believe it works for some styles. You basically have to open the blinds and then slowly let it down and see where the strings go. If they’re feeding into separate “tracks” as you lower it, it won’t work.

            The string that is fed down and hangs all the blinds together is basically the same string as the pull-string. The one I tried this on, each string split into separate tracks inside the top part, so it didn’t work.

      • Dharma Curious (he/him)
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        1 month ago

        Maybe the ones I’ve had are looser? I’ve personally done it to 3 different blinds, but they were all in the same rental house, so maybe they’re different somehow

    • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      You can also just leave the cap intact, and and just tie the end of the cord in a knot to keep the strings together. Just loop it around itself and poke the end through the loop and tighten it to make the knot sit near the end of the cord.