Spring Cleaning: Cleaning a Ceiling Fan


Spring Cleaning How to Clean a Ceiling Fan

I am working my way through a Spring Cleaning challenge with an amazing group of organizing and cleaning bloggers.  They send me an email each morning with the challenge for the day and I have been trying to fit in a little bit of deep cleaning each day.  The house may not be spotless, yet; but I am making progress!

I worked on cleaning our bedroom and really needed to clean our ceiling fan.  Our normal cleaning often includes cleaning the blades with a dusting cloth, but I needed to get to the more neglected portions of the fan.

Here’s how to clean a ceiling fan (after you have turned it off!):

Place a towel or a sheet on the floor underneath the fan.  Then put your step stool on top of the cloth.  This will help to keep the dust that falls from the fan in a centralized area.

Dust the blades of the fan.  I hold one blade of the fan at a time and wipe from the center out on top and then from the center out on the under side of the blade.

Dust the housing of the fan, too.

If your ceiling fan has lights attached to it, take the bulbs out and dust them off, Then loosen the thumb screws and take the shade off.  Dust the shade very thoroughly with a dampened cloth.

How to Clean a Ceiling Fan

Quick tip:  If your fan has started to “rattle” or make annoying noises while turned on, it may be the shades on the light.  When you take the shades off, you will see the padding on the rim may have worn through.  To fix the problem, turn the shade a quarter of an inch clockwise and return to the shade housing.  Make sure that it is securely at the top of the housing and turn the thumbscrews so that each of the thumbscrews is gripping the shade.

How to Clean a Ceiling Fan - tip to reduce noise

Now that you have gotten the major parts of the fan dusted, go into the details of the fan.  Grab some cotton-tipped swabs and moisten them (you can use water or alcohol, whichever you prefer) and run along the tiny crevices in the fan.

How to Clean a Ceiling Fan - detail cleaning

Make sure you get the vents on the fan housing (they are really gunky!) and the attachment arms of the fan blades.

How to Clean a Ceiling Fan - Housing vent detail

After you have finished cleaning the fan, make sure all the light bulbs are securely screwed in and turn on the fan.  Pick up the towel or cloth you have on the floor and throw it in the laundry.  Vacuum or sweep the floor under the fan.

Cleaning your ceiling fan regularly can really help to cut down on indoor allergies for your family.  Our family really suffers from allergies this time of year, so I am happy we got this done during our Spring cleaning!


This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. What a great tutorial!! We’ve had a few fans that rattle and it’s funny how we end up ignoring them (until they drive us crazy) instead of taking a couple minutes to fix them. Thank you for helping me realize it’s an easy thing to correct 🙂

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