How To Properly Clean Your Eyeglasses Without Damaging Them

The Best Ways to Clean Your Eyeglasses

If your eyeglasses are cloudy, smudged, or dirty, this is the best way to clean them:

1. Wash your hands.

   Washing your hands before cleaning your glasses helps prevent any further smudging or transferring dirt onto your lenses during cleaning.

2. Use warm water

   Run your eyeglasses under warm (not hot) water. Using warm water is best, as hot water can actually damage any special lens coatings, like an Anti-Reflective (AR) coating your glasses may have on them.

3. Use a tiny bit of dish soap

   Add 1-2 drops of dish soap or hand soap to your fingertips. A grease-cutting, lotion-free dishwashing liquid like Dawn is the most ideal cleaning solution when cleaning your eyeglasses. If you don’t have dish soap handy, you can use a lotion-free hand soap to effectively clean your glasses.

4. Lather up the eyeglass lenses

   Gently rub the soap into the eyeglasses, including the lenses, temple, nose pads and bridge for a few seconds. If your glasses are especially dirty, you can use a soft toothbrush to scrub and remove dust in hard-to-reach nooks and crannies.

5. Rinse the glasses

   Use a gentle stream of warm water to rinse your glasses and your hands, washing away any residual dirt.

6. Dry your hands with a clean towel

   Be sure to dry your hands with a lint-free towel once you have finished cleaning your glasses so that you don’t transfer any new dust onto your fresh glasses!

7. Dry your glasses and lenses with a clean microfiber cloth

   Microfiber cloths are the best for cleaning delicate surfaces like eyeglasses, as the fibers within the cloth are tightly woven (hence the name “microfiber”). This means they are soft, absorbent, detract lint and dust, and trap oils and liquids effectively.

Be sure to replace or wash your microfiber cloth frequently, as it will get dirty as well. When washing your microfiber cloth, it’s best to wash by hand with a mild soap that does not contain any bleach, then allow the clean cloth to air dry. If you’re pressed for time, you may also wash your microfiber cloth in the washing machine with like colours and fabrics, using a bleach-free detergent; again, hang to dry. Avoid using a fabric softener when washing your microfiber cloth, as this can coat the fibers, making them less effective for cleaning.

Further reading: How to Prevent Your Glasses From Fogging