I have a few tricks for how to clean a glass light fixture that I absolutely swear by, and today I’m finally getting around to sharing them with you!
I love a shiny, clear glass light fixture, but they definitely require a good bit of upkeep to keep them looking nice. I used to have such a hard time keeping them sparkling and I swore I’d never get a clear glass light fixture again. Eventually, through trial and error, I’ve found a few somewhat unconventional methods to keep them clean without too much hassle. I realized recently that I’d actually never shared these tricks with you, so today I thought it was high time we talk about how to clean a glass light fixture.
Cleaning a Glass Light Fixture: Easy Regular Maintenance
So, the most helpful tip for keeping your glass light fixtures clean is probably that you shouldn’t just ignore them until they really need a good cleaning. You don’t necessarily need to use cleaner and polishing cloths every time, but a quick swipe of a feather duster a couple of times a week will really make a difference. A lot of what builds up on light fixtures is just a mixture of dust and the humidity in the air.
This might sound a little gross, but trying to keep your home as bug-free as possible really helps too. Flies are of course attracted to light bulbs and if you have a lot of them, you’ll start to notice little fly poop dots on your glass so reducing the flies in your home will definitely make your life easier in many ways, and this is one of them.
My Favourite Tricks for Serious Light Fixture Cleaning
When it comes to the actual serious cleaning of the light fixtures, there were three things that I started to do differently at a certain point of frustration that made all the difference: I started to wear gloves, I switched my lightbulbs, and I started using lint-free polishing cloths instead of paper towel.
I just like to wear those cheapo knitted gloves you can get for a dollar just about anywhere during the fall and winter and I just feel like it’s the smartest thing. The gloves allow me to directly handle the glass itself without leaving any fingerprints, so if I have glass globe that I need to remove to clean, I don’t need to worry about polishing it all over again once I get it back up. I can also just polish the glass with the gloves on my hand instead of the polishing cloth if it’s easier to reach a certain smudge or spot with my finger or thumb while I’m holding the glass. So I’m basically shining and polishing with every thing that I do, instead of smudging the glass up with my fingers.
A few years ago, we switched the using LED lights that don’t put off a lot of heat and I never realized how difficult the old bulbs were making my life until I didn’t have to deal with them anymore. With the old bulbs, I’d have to turn the light off completely to clean it, which meant that I couldn’t actually see all the smudges and marks on the glass. When I’d turn the light back on, I’d see all of these marks show up that I just couldn’t see with the light off. If I tried to leave the light on, I’d constantly burning my hand by accidentally brushing against the light bulbs, or the heat from the bulbs would cause the cleaner I was using to evaporate before I had a chance to polish it away, leaving spots and watermarks. Insert face-palm emoji here. We didn’t switch to the new bulbs for this reason initially, but it would be worth it to switch just because of how much easier they make the cleaning process.
Lastly, we all hate chasing little bits of lint around a mirror or something made of glass, trying to magically remove smudges while also somehow swiping in just the right way to not leave any lint behind. It’s almost impossible. I love these glass and polishing cloths for just about any polishing job, and I use them on our light fixtures exclusively, as well as bring them to every photo shoot we do to quickly clear away any marks showing up on shiny countertops, appliances, or glass cabinet fronts.
So I guess this post isn’t so much of a “How to Clean Glass Light Fixtures” as it is a “What to Use Instead While Still Cleaning in a Fairly Normal Way”. 🙂 Hope these little tricks help to make your life easier the way they’ve done for me!
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.