How to Clean a Lampshade

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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One thing that is often overlooked at cleaning time is your lampshades. They quickly can become overwhelmed with dust and dirt. The following will help them look new.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

towel
two buckets
clothes line or clean counter area
glass cleaner for glass shades
lampshade cleaner or dish soap and water
two clean cloth rags

Step1

Dust the lampshades weekly. This will decrease the amount of times you will need to wash them, thus prolonging the life and beauty of the shade.

Step2

Remove the shade from the lamp.

Step3

Buy a cleaner specified for lampshades or mix 1 tsp. of dish soap with 5 cups of water.

Step4

Soak a soft cloth in the soapy mixture.

Step5

Wring out the rag well and wipe the shade softly, but with enough elbow grease to clean it.

Step6

Wipe it again with a clean, wet rag.

Step7

Wipe the lampshade with a dry, clean towel.

Step8

Hang it up to drip dry or place it on a clean surface for drying.

Step9

Place it back on its stand and turn the light on to continue drying the shade.

Tips & Warnings

Use glass cleaner for glass shades.
If your shade is extremely dirty, you should repeat cleaning it with a clean soapy cleaner.
Never vacuum a shade.
If your shade is made with a special type of fabric, use a cleaner made especially for that type of fabric.