How to Clean Glasses the Right Way (and What to Avoid)

If you’re tired of your glasses being covered in smudges and dirt, it’s time to learn how to clean them properly. It’s not a skill you learn in school (even though it should be), so you’ll need to get that information from somewhere else — like Pair.

We’re here to save you time by providing a few simple steps for cleaning your glasses and avoiding habits that can damage your lenses and frames. With this info in your back pocket, you can prevent your glasses from getting dirty and keep them in good shape for as long as possible.

To get started, all you need is dishwashing liquid or another gentle cleanser, a microfiber towel, and clean hands. We’ll walk you through the rest below.

How to Clean Glasses: Follow These 5 Simple Steps

Ready to learn how to clean your glasses? Follow these five simple steps to keep the dust, grime, and smears away.

1. Wash and Dry Your Hands

Did you know that your hands are home to about 100,000 to a few million germs at any point in time? In other words, you don’t want these harmful microorganisms on your eyewear.

As such, the first step for how to clean glasses properly is to start with a clean slate and wash your hands:

• Use lotion-free soap or dishwashing liquid to prevent smears from forming on your glasses later.
• Lightly scrub the pads of your fingers and palms, and don’t forget the backs of your hands.
• Rinse off the suds with clean water.
• Dry your hands with a lint-free towel — this prevents teeny pieces of lint from sticking to your glasses.

2. Rinse Your Glasses With Tap Water

Once your hands are squeaky-clean, take off your glasses and rinse them with tap water. Here’s a cleaning tip: Hold your glasses so that the gentle stream of water hits the lenses. This will help to wash away any dust or dirt sticking to your spectacles without scratch-inducing friction.

3. Use a Small Drop of Lotion-free Dishwashing Liquid

Less is more when it comes to soaping up your glasses. Carefully place a tiny drop of lotion-free dish soap on each lens. Spread the soap over other parts of your glasses’ frames. Pay special attention to the nose pads and the temples, which are usually oilier since they’re in close contact with the skin and its sebum (natural oils).

Alternatively, you can use an eyeglass cleaning solution, which typically comes in a spray or a wipe. Check that the lens cleaner can be used on lenses with an anti-reflective coating. For spray-based lens cleaners, spritz on a microfiber lens cloth and gently rub the solution over both sides of the lenses. For the wipes, use one to wipe down each lens.

The good thing about eyeglass cleaners is that they’re convenient and fuss-free as they don’t need a rinse with water (check the instruction label to double-confirm). This makes them ideal for travel, especially if you’re headed somewhere without easy access to clean water.

4. Rinse Your Glasses Once More

If you’re using a mild soap to clean your glasses, run them through tap water again to wash away all the suds. This will prevent unsightly smears from forming on the lenses and frame when you dry them.

5. Dry Your Glasses

When drying your glasses, use lint-free materials like a microfiber cloth. This type of cloth is highly absorbent as research shows it absorbs “over seven times their weight in water” and “dry in one-third of the time of ordinary fibers” like cotton. Microfiber also doesn’t leave behind small, pesky fibers like lint on your eyeglass lenses. Most importantly, it’s scientifically proven to wipe off fingerprint marks and sebum without scratching the lens surface. Pair Eyewear’s Cleaning Cloths are made of rPET, a more eco-friendly type of microfiber.

How to Clean Your Glasses: 6 Do’s and Don’ts

Now that you know how to clean your glasses the right way, keep the following do’s and don’ts in mind.

Do: Use Lukewarm Water

The best water temperature for cleaning glasses is lukewarm water (warm water is acceptable, too). Hot water is quite damaging to the lenses, especially those with a specialized lens coating.

It’s also wise to avoid hard water because it has a higher concentration of minerals like calcium and magnesium. Over time, using hard water to clean your glasses may lead to ultra-fine scratches that interfere with your vision. What’s more, hard water often leaves behind a white residue, which means that the cleaning rag you use to dry your glasses may sport chalky stains in time.

If you live in an area with hard water, use distilled water to clean your glasses instead. For a more economical option, install a water softener or a hard water filter on your faucet.

Don’t: Use Harsh Substances

If there’s one takeaway to keep in mind for how to clean your glasses properly, it’s to avoid using harsh substances for lens-cleaning, especially if they aren’t diluted with water. Some of these include:

• Disinfectant wipes: These can leave a filmy residue on your glasses and might even wear down the lenses’ protective coating. Save them for other dirty surfaces around your home.

• Rubbing alcohol: Like disinfectant wipes, rubbing alcohol is too powerful for cleaning the delicate parts of your glasses and can potentially degrade the material used to make the lenses and frames.

• Nail polish remover: Acetone-based nail polish remover is too strong to use on your glasses. Even if you have no other options, it’s better to wear glasses that are dirty than use nail polish remover to clean them.

• Household glass cleaners like window cleaners: While glass and multi-surface cleaners might seem convenient when you need to clean fast, they sometimes contain ingredients that can break down the materials used to make your glasses. Additionally, some cleaners can leave filmy streaks behind.
  
  
• Saliva: Even if you’re desperate and need your glasses cleaned ASAP, don’t use your spit to wipe them off. It’s not hygienic and probably won’t get the job done.

In particular, substances like nail polish remover contain acetone that erodes the lenses and damages the frame.

Do: Clean Your Microfiber Cloth Regularly

Due to their small fiber size, microfiber cloths trap dust, dirt, and oils efficiently. This also means they get dirty very quickly. Remember to wash the cloth regularly to ensure the grime isn’t transferred to your glasses.

For a clean microfiber cloth, wash it by hand with lotion-free soap and let it air dry. Avoid using fabric softeners, bleach, laundry detergent, and dryer sheets, as these substances can leave a visible residue on the lenses when you clean your glasses with the cloth.

Don’t: Use Anything Other Than a Microfiber Towel for the Lenses

You may be tempted to use a napkin, the bottom of your T-shirt, or your shirttail to clean your eyeglasses. Unfortunately, paper products like tissues, toilet paper, napkins, and paper towels have a rough surface that can scratch the lenses. The same goes for common clothing materials like cotton and polyester.

Do: Keep Your Glasses in a Clean Case

After all the hard work you’ve put into cleaning your glasses lenses, it only makes sense to keep your eyewear in a clean case or pouch when you’re not using it. This good habit also helps protect your spectacles from scratches (see next section). Give your glasses case a good cleaning from time to time as they’re also prime real estate for bacteria growth.

Use a wet wipe or cloth to clean the outer surface of the case and dry it with a clean rag. Depending on what material is used inside the case, you can either use a wet wipe (if it’s a waterproof material like plastic) or a brush (if it’s not waterproof like suede).

Don’t: Buff Away the Scratches

Perhaps you’ve put your best into maintaining clean eyeglasses but accidentally scratched one of the lenses. Don’t worry, that happens to many of us, although we have to admit there’s nothing you can do for your damaged pair.

Instead of trying to buff away the scratches (which won’t work — sorry to burst your bubble!), visit your optician instead. They’ll likely replace the defective lenses with new ones. To extend the longevity of your new pair, choose scratch-resistant glasses, like the ones at Pair Eyewear.

Keep Your Eyewear Clean

Learning how to clean glasses doesn’t need to be a chore as long as you follow the steps above and keep in mind the various do’s and don’ts. Clean eyeglasses not only maintain crystal-clear vision through dirt-free lenses, but they also help maintain optimal eye health.

If you’re looking for a new pair, our eyeglasses start from only $60 and come in various designs — think Classic Colors and artsy prints like our Van Gogh Collection. The bottom line is, there’s a Pair for everyone.