How to clean a ceiling fan?

If you’re not sure how to clean a ceiling fan, fear not! You’re not alone, and we’re here to help. Just like anything else in your home, ceiling fans need a regular clean. Cleaning a ceiling fan can help increase its life span and maintain the air quality in your home. Without regular cleaning, dust can build up along its blades and the top of its motor. Unfortunately, because the ceiling fan is above your eye line, you may not notice the dust until you turn on the fan. At this point, dust won’t just be on the fan. It will be all over you, not to mention the rest of the room. While this may leave the fan cleaner than it started, it’s much easier to clean a single fan than an entire room. All you need to do is follow the handy tips below.

Make cleaning your fan part of your regular cleaning regimen.

Let’s face it. It’s too easy to forget about cleaning a fan unless you incorporate the task into your routine. Some cleaning experts suggest dusting a fan every two months, but it depends on your location. A fan installed in an open plan kitchen and living area might need more frequent cleaning if exposed to steam from the cooking area.

The Money Crashers website suggests putting a schedule into writing to help you stick to it, but you will know what works for you best. Because you won’t need to clean your fans every time you clean, including it in your schedule might seem counter-intuitive. But there are easy ways to manage this. If you have more than one fan, you could clean one each week. If not, why not create a list of monthly tasks and alternate between them each time you clean your house?

Cleaning a dusty fan

Removing dust from a ceiling fan is an important job. Dusty fans circulate pollutants around the room, creating a health hazard, particularly for people with allergies or asthma. There are several ways to dust a ceiling fan.

No matter which method you use, cover your face. The whole reason you’re doing this is to protect your health, so don’t undo all your good work by breathing in dust.
You can expose yourself to even less dust by using an old pillowcase to remove the dust from your fans. Place the pillowcase over the fan blade. The blade should be sitting inside the pillowcase. Drag the pillowcase off the fan, applying just enough pressure to remove the dust too. The dust will be inside the pillowcase. Repeat for each fan blade and pop the pillowcase in the washing machine. All done!
You can also wipe down the fan with a damp cloth to remove dust. You can also use a dry cloth, but keep in mind that damper fabric will hold more dust – whereas a dry cloth may push the dust back into the air.

Cleaning a greasy fan

If your fan is in or near a kitchen, it might accumulate grease over time. Cleaning grease is not as easy as cleaning dust, but with a bit of effort, you should be able to make your fan sparkle again.

Apply a small amount of degreaser or rubbing oil to a damp cloth and wipe down the fan applying slight pressure.

Once you’ve removed the grease, use a warm damp cloth to remove any excess degreaser from the fan. If you’ve caught the spring cleaning bug, we also have advice on how to clean your exhaust fan too!