Behold the disgusting layer of dust on the top of the fan blades that I just removed! That could be on each of your fan blades right now!

If your home has ceiling fans, then you know how absolutely disgusting and dirty they can get after running for 24 hours a day for months at a time, especially if your home has central AC or forced hot air heat. Ceiling fans naturally move the air in the room and by doing so they move around the dust, pet hair and other airborne particles in the room. I just put a new ceiling fan into my office and within three weeks it was dusty and had a thin layer of grey powdery film on the fan blades.

You can see in the photo what the old fan looked like. Now imagine that fan whizzing above your head, throwing all that dirt and dust on top of you every day. Large amounts of dirt and dust on the fan blades can actually make a fan wobble and become unsteady.

Cleaning a ceiling fan isn’t particularly hard or complex if you can get to the fan, but there are a few things you want to be careful about.

1. First, turn off the fan and put a quick piece of tape over the wall switch if there is one so that someone doesn’t walk into the room and accidentally turn the fan on while you’ve got your hand up there. It sounds silly, but some ceiling fans really do spin hard enough to cause considerable damage to your hand or head. And if you’re on a ladder when cleaning your ceiling fan, the fall alone could seriously injure you.

2. If you’re going to clean the ceiling fan by hand then you’re probably going to need either a small sturdy step ladder or some sort of interior ladder to get to the fan. My ceilings are fairly standard height, so I can get to mine with a small three step ladder.

3. Once you’re up at the fan you’ll want to take either a damp towel or a bottle of general home cleaner (I use Formula 409) and a few paper towels up with you. Do NOT spray the fan because you’ll just end up getting cleaner all over the fan, the light globe, the ceiling and in your eye. Again, not a good mix with a ladder. Spray your paper towel two or three times and then take the paper towel and slowly wipe over the TOP of the fan blade (the side of the fan blade you can’t see from the floor). Be prepared to be disgusted. I generally use a damp towel or cleaner because it takes off the really “caked on” grime and hair that easily sticks to fans.

4. After you’ve gotten most of that dust off the top of the blade you might want to go ahead and do the same around the edges of the blade until one fan blade looks completely clean. This usually takes me a minute or two for each blade and I usually get down off the ladder, prep my paper towels for each blade and go back up.

5. Repeat for each blade, but be careful and go lightly! Most ceiling fan are very precisely balanced machines which can be thrown out of alignment by tugging or bending the blades even a little bit. If your fan is out of alignment it will wobble and could even pose a serious danger if it wobbles enough to loosen itself from the ceiling braces

If your fan is too high or you don’t like the idea of climbing up on a ladder, you could always try a Ceiling Fan Vacuum Attachment that uses your vacuum cleaner to suck the dirt off the top and bottom of the fan blades. If you’re going to use one of these, I suggest vacuuming your fans about once every two weeks to make sure the dust doesn’t get a chance to get “caked on” the blades.

If you’re using your ceiling fan a lot you might want to consider going through this cleaning regimen once a month or so that the dust buildup doesn’t get too difficult to remove or build up too much. During times when you don’t use the fan as much you can stretch out the periods between cleanings to a couple months at a time.

Again, I know this sounds like a silly, simply job, but there really is some danger involved whenever you’re using a ladder or working with ceiling fans, so play it safe!