How To Clean Ceiling Fans and Light Fixtures

Next on the list of your quest for cleanliness would be any ceiling fans or light fixtures. To clean a ceiling fan, you must first get a stepladder and a screwdriver because you are going to have to dismantle the fan blades in order to properly clean them.

Fan blades get gunked up with grease and then dust gets stuck to the gunk, leaving a very nasty cleaning situation. In order to clean that off, you need a dish pan with very hot, soapy water in it, a dish soap that claims to remove grease, a rag and some sort of abrasive material that won’t scratch your fan blades. You can use a steel wool pad but something made of plastic or some other non-abrasive material is preferable.

Make sure the fan and lights are turned off before you start. Start with one fan blade at a time and unscrew it from the base. Then put the blade in the sink and start scrubbing with the hot, soapy water and the non-abrasive pad. Make sure you get the sides of the blade as well as the front and back. Make sure you get the metal part that is attached to the fan blade. That gets gunked up also. Rinse in cold water and dry completely.

Before you screw the fan blade back into the base, wash the base (attached to the ceiling) with the non-abrasive pad, wipe with the hot, soapy rag and dry completely. Be extremely careful about getting the base wet. Do not get any water in the base. Before you use the non-abrasive pad or the hot, soapy rag on the base, make sure you squeeze them out completely.

Screw the fan blade back into the base and proceed to the next blade, until all the fan blades are done. After screwing the fan blade back in, make sure it is secure. Try wiggling it. If it wiggles, you need to push the fan blade up a little and screw it tighter. Sometimes the fan blade faces downward while you are screwing it back in and you have to raise it up a little to make sure it is screwed in solidly. Otherwise, it might fly off when you turn the fan on.

Next, unscrew the light fixtures from the base and wash them in hot, soapy water. Gently wash the light bulbs. Do not wash the part that gets screwed into the base and do not wash the light bulbs while they are attached to the base! If they are gunky, unscrew them and gently wash them with the hot, soapy rag. Make sure they are completely dry before rescrewing them into the base.

You should wash your fan about once a month. If you don’t have the time or the patience to do it, feel free to call me, Linda at Personalized Cleaning at 586 219-3802 and schedule a cleaning time. We specialize in Michigan cleaning services. I am not particular about how much time I spend cleaning your house. If you have a simple job that only requires an hour or two, I am happy to do that for you.