A slat cleaning apparatus (10) is disclosed for use in cleaning slats making up a verticle blind. Cleaning of vertical blind slats is made complicated by the difference in thickness of the head, body and tail of the slat and by the needs to apply and remove a cleaning liquid without creating mess to surrounding slats and or windows. The slat cleaning apparatus has a head (16) with a slot (70) and a partable barrier located in the slot (70) for substantially sealing against the slat. A fluid extractor (50,74) is provided for operating under vacuum pressure to withdraw fluid and entrained matter from the head (16). Two cleaning elements (72) are provided substantially mutually parallel and located on opposite sides of the slot (70) for cleaning the slat. The cleaning elements (72) are compressible or moveable for operating at differing gaps to accommodate the differing thickness in the slats. An injector button (18) is provided for rapidly disengaging the cleaning elements (72) from a drive unit (12) of the apparatus (10) should it be necessary to rapidly cease actuation of the cleaning elements (72), such as, for example in the event that a thread of the slat becomes entangled with the cleaning elements (72). The head (16) is substantially transparent to enable viewing of the function of the cleaning elements (72) and removal of the fluid and entrained matter when in use. The drive units (12) may be of conventual type and the fluid extractor (50,74) may be coupled to a conventional source of vacuum.