What To Look And Watch Out For When You Get Blinds Or Shades Delivered.

Ordering window blinds by phone or online is a smart and time saving move. This usually means the packages will appear on your doorstep without you having to scout around for them. And since it is difficult for you to already know what a typical box with a window blind contains (or should contain), here’s a short checklist of standard installation parts you need to find in there.

1.
Check the boxes for any outside damages BEFORE you sign off to the courier service. It’s a must DO to protect yourself against lengthy dealings with the delivery company later should you have overlooked a shipping damage on a box and found your new products smashed up, dented or scratched later. If everything looks fine, go to step 2.

2.
CAREFULLY cut the packing tape and open the box fully on the floor or table.

3. Window blinds are generally packed in various types of bubble wrap and taped up. You may also find several air-filled cushion pouches or crumpled up packing paper for extra protection. Delicate roman shades, sheer vertical blinds or sheer horizontal shades often have extra foam blocks protecting the end of the headrail cassettes and the delicate fabrics.
Boxes with longer and heavier window blinds have rigid cardboard corners taped around the outside box edges.
It sometimes takes a while to fully unpack a bunch of window blinds or shades.

4. As you unpack your blinds with care, pay special attention to the packaging you’ve put aside for discarding. More often than not, there’s a package or two of brackets, or some other installation part that you may have overlooked. Take your time and pay attention to even the small plastic packages. Check ‘em out. thoroughly.

5. Once you have everything unpacked, lay out everything in front of you. Visually check for any damages like dents, scratches, bends, chipped wooden slats or bottom rails, broken tilt mechanisms or tilt wands.
You should have your blinds or shades in one spot. With every blind or shade, there should be at least 2 brackets (if the width of a shade is more than 45”, there should be 3 or more brackets that look the same). Some shade and mini blinds brackets consist of more than one part. So, that’s why it’s a good idea to set them  side-by-side and compare “their looks” assuring they are ALL complete. If not, find the "loose parts" and use the complete one as a model to put the one "in pieces" together again.

An Orderly Example Of Laid Out Installation Parts For A Cellular Vertical Blind

An Example Of Two Brackets For Mini Blinds (The left one came apart out of the box. It consists of three parts: the base, the locking slider and the retaining spring.)

Wood blinds and faux wood blinds will typically have 2 square end brackets and one or more supporting brackets for the headrail. The two end brackets usually have the same color as the headrail and the support brackets are silver-looking; square U-shaped.

A Wood Blind Example – Unpacked And Parts Laid Out (Notice the left and right brackets with the "silvery" support bracket in between them at the top. Then, there is the valance and the wood blind itself.)

Roller shades without a headrail cassette come with R & L brackets (they look different from each other). The ones with a headrail cassette, the brackets top mount and are uniform in their look.

6.
For blinds with valances (usually wood blinds, faux wood blinds, vertical blinds, special-order roller shades and vertical cellular shades), there’s a valance in the box. In there, you’ll also find a bunch of plastic clips (two or more) to fasten the valance to the headrail. If the valance is for an outside mount, you need to find the L & R returns and the brackets or L-shaped inserts that join them to the valance.

7.
For doors (outside mounts), you need a couple of hold-down brackets (plastic or metal). They hold the bottom rail of a shade or blind attached to the door. They also prevent it from moving when the door opens, or in drafty conditions.

Note:
Many valance clips, cord cleats, hold-down brackets, corner-return joining brackets, spacers and some tilt wands are made of clear plastic. It’s easy to miss them altogether.
Also, check the sides of each rail for missing end caps before installations (if they have them).
Especially the ones on cellular shades often fall out and somehow … disappear.
Never throw out any of the packaging until your blinds or shades are up, fully functional and looking beautiful. How do we know? Ehm… .

2 See-Through Extension Blocks And Hold-Down Brackets	2 See-Through Mini Blinds Tilt-Control Wands

8.
Included in the packages, you’ll also find mounting screws and installation instructions. Some manufacturers put in easy-to-work-with screws, like Robertson (square) # 6 or # 8.
Others include long, Phillips (cross-like) screws that are now and then impossible to keep on the end of your driver bit. They fall off or wobble a lot during the fastening stages.
So, you may need to get better screws to work with (if necessary) for your installation of blinds.

Hint: A good combination of Robertson (square) screws and properly fitting driver bits are a cool timesaving combination!

9.
Next, notice that each top of the headrail (or inside it), there is a sticker that tells you the blind’s dimensions. The stickers are helpful during sorting your blinds to see where each of them goes (if you have many of them to put up).

The next steps are, of course, installation steps. Check out the picture-illustrated window blinds and shades installation guides. They make it darn easy, even for a novice, to install blinds and shades quickly regardless of previous experience.

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