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If you are an eyeglass wearer or have a pair of sunglasses that you like to throw on whenever you head out into the bright sunlight you might be wondering what the best way you should be cleaning your glasses. Everyone that has glasses knows that if you don’t clean your glasses the correct way you could potentially leave scratches and ruin your glasses.

Best Way To Clean Eyeglasses

As an optician whenever I dispensed a pair of glasses to my patients I always made sure to educate them on proper care of their glasses. How long your glasses last ultimately depends on how well you take care of your glasses.

There are a number of ways that you can clean your eyeglasses, there are disposable wipes, soap and water, cleaning spray, and microfiber cloths. The disposable wipes are used on their own, and the microfiber cloth would be used with either soap & water or a cleaning spray. Remember any time you decide to clean your glasses, make sure that your hands are clean and there is no dust or grime that could be transferred onto your glasses.

Each way of cleaning your glasses has its own pros and cons let’s take a look at each more in-depth.

 

Disposable Pre-Moist Cleaning Cloths

Disposable pre-moist cleaning cloths are a convenient way to keep your glasses clean. These little cloths usually come packed in individual packets, kind of similar to how an alcohol pad or disposable hand cleaning towel you might find in restaurants.

The important thing to remember when you are using disposable cleaning cloths is to make sure that your lenses are free of dirt and debris. If you do not check for dust and debris and you wipe your lenses you risk rubbing the dust and debris into your lenses. Which in turn would leave unwanted scratches.

• PROS

• • Convenient to carry around – These little disposable cleaning cloths can be easily carried around with you in your pocket or in your bag ready to be used whenever needed.

• • Disposable – Being disposable means there is no need to worry about this cloth getting dirty and transferring dirt and grime onto your glasses.

• • Don’t need to carry spray – The benefit of using a pre-moist cloth is that you don’t need to carry around any cleaning solution or worry about finding soap to clean your lenses.

• CONS

• • Too Moist – Some common complaints about pre-moist cleaning cloths is that some could be too wet, which could leave streaks on your lenses.

• • Too Dry – Another common complaint about pre-moist cleaning cloths is that some are too dry and doesn’t put enough moisture on your lenses, which could lead to you scratching your lenses.

• • Dry out too quick – Another common complaint about these is that they dry out before you are able to finish cleaning the lenses. Some of these pre-moist wipes contain alcohol, which evaporates relatively quick.

Depending on the brand of the pre-moist wipe that you get there is a chance that you could run into some issues using this method of cleaning your glasses. If you find a brand that you like with pre-moist wipes I recommend sticking with that brand. Each brand makes its cloth different, and they aren’t all the same.

If you do find some pre-moist cleaning cloths that are too moist, the extra moist ones work great on cleaning your smartphones, tablets, or computer screens.

Soap & Water

This is the method of cleaning your glasses that is the most cost efficient since you really don’t need to purchase anything except for a microfiber cloth to dry your glasses with. 

If you are cleaning your glasses with soap and water, make sure you are using lukewarm water and not hot water, which could damage the coatings on your lenses.

Use a small drop of lotion-free dishwashing liquid on each lens and gently rub both sides of the lenses and anywhere else dirt and grime could build up. Common locations are at the edge of the lens where the lens meets the frame, the temples that rest on your ears, and the nose pads.

• PROS

• • Inexpensive – You don’t need to purchase anything extra if you already have lotion-free soap and some sort of soft cloth at home.

• • Gets grime off entire glasses – When we use other methods of cleaning our glasses we tend to just focus on cleaning the lenses. When you use soap and water you get your entire pair of glasses wet so you end up cleaning off other places like the temples and nose pads as well.

• CONS

• • Residual Soap – If you are not careful to completely rinse off your lenses of the soap, you could leave annoying smears and streaks on your lenses

Make sure to rinse your glasses thoroughly, as any leftover soap will smear on your lenses. Other than the potential of soap smearing if you don’t rinse it off correctly, this is still one of the best methods of cleaning your glasses. This method cleans every part of your glasses instead of just the lenses.

Cleaning Spray with Microfiber Cloth

This is definitely my personal favorite method of cleaning glasses. I have eyeglass cleaner spray literally everywhere. I have one at home, one at work, one in the car, one in the gym bag, and a ton of other places.

I feel like it is the quickest way to clean your glasses and clean them very well. You just do the usual check for any dust and debris that you could blow off. Spray on the cleaning spray and wipe clean with your microfiber cloth. 

• PROS

• • Cleans Well – Using a spray and a microfiber cleaning cloth cleans your lenses extremely well without leaving grime and streaks.

• • Safe on Coatings – Most cleaning sprays are designed with your coatings in mind, therefore most cleaning sprays are safe for your lens coatings.

• CONS

• • Need to Have Spray Everywhere – If you are using this as your primary cleaning method than your either going to have to carry around your spray everywhere you go or have a spray at all the places your at the most throughout the day.

• • Microfiber Cloths get dirty – Microfiber cloths get dirty, and if you have every washed on before you know that they don’t clean the same after they have been washed.

Using a cleaning spray and microfiber cloth is a great method to keep your glasses looking clean. I personally find that the microfiber cloth never truly works the same after you wash them, so I just continue to buy new ones as my microfiber cloths get worn out. I use my older microfiber cloths to clean other things like my smartphones and tablets.

What Not To Use

We’ve all used our shirt to clean our glasses at least once in our lives. This is definitely a big no-no when it comes to cleaning glasses, but most people do it anyway because it’s easy. Let’s take a look at ways you shouldn’t be cleaning your glasses.

• Your Shirt – Whenever there is a big smudge on your glasses it can be irritating to look at. The quickest thing to grab to try to clean your glasses is your shirt, but this is a habit that you really should stop doing. Shirt fibers can be rough on your lenses and can pick up dirt and debris throughout the day. Whenever you decide to clean your lenses with your shirt, you are rubbing the dirt and debris right onto your lenses. This could easily lead could cause some major damage to your lenses by leaving scratches.

• Cleaning your glasses with no liquid – This is also another big no-no when it comes to cleaning your glasses. You should never clean your glasses without using liquid. Doing so would lead you to rub all the fine dust particles onto your lenses as you are pushing it around. Even using a microfiber cloth with no liquid has the chance to leave scratches on your lenses.

Conclusion

Keeping your glasses clean throughout the day can be easy if you have the correct supplies. Oils come naturally off your eyelashes, and face leads to build upon your lenses. Along with all the dust and debris that you encounter throughout the day.

Leaving grime on your lenses for too long could lead to build up and damage your lenses so it is important to clean your glasses at least once a day.

How often do you clean your glasses? Let me know below!

As always thank you all for reading, if you have any comments, questions or concerns don’t hesitate to leave it below and I will get back to you.

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