How to Clean a Lampshade

Lampshades are a necessary part of home decor and lighting plans, but they can also be notorious dust collectors. Today I’m sharing my favorite little trick for how to clean a lampshade quickly and easily.

Sometimes, I think cleaning is fun. There. I said it. I usually do a quick bit of dusting and house cleaning on Saturdays and I always save the lampshades for last because it’s my favorite part. They collect all kinds of dust and pet fur throughout the week and vacuuming them, even with the most high-powered vacuum, just never seems to cut it. This is where the trusty lint roller, right-hand man of pet owners everywhere, comes into play, and it’s my favorite easy trick for how to clean a lampshade and remove stubborn dust, lint, hair, and other various types of grime that can accumulate.

Housekeeping ideas for a fresh home: How to Properly Clean Used Furniture From the Thrift Store

How to Clean Lamp Shades Around Your Home

This solution for cleaning lampshades is fairly self-explanatory for the most part. First, identify which lampshades in your home need dusting. To be honest, it’s probably all of them. Then, take a clean lint roller and roll it over the outer surface of a lampshade, removing dust and debris that has settled on it over time. Move on to other lampshades around your home on table lamps, floor lamps, sconces, and chandeliers until you’ve dusted them all.

When one lint roller sheet becomes full of lint, remove it and continue with a fresh one. Lint rolling is pretty fun, you’ve got to admit. Don’t worry, this lint roller pictured here is from multiple lampshades around our house, not just these two in the photo.

I don’t know how I came up with the idea to use a lint roller, but I’m so glad I did. Works like a charm.

It takes probably 4 or 5 sheets to do all 5 of the lampshades in my living room and dining room. This isn’t exactly the greenest solution, but that’s only because I have a whole stockpile of roller refills to go through that I bought a while ago. If you don’t already have disposable rollers to use up, those rinse-able sticky rollers would be a great idea, or a lint brush, and also these extra sticky ones for pet fur are kind of an amazing idea.

This method works beautifully if you have a patterned or delicate lamp shade to clean because the lint roller is quite gentle. To dust pleated lampshades, it can be helpful to run a soft toothbrush down each pleat to loosen some of the dust before lifting it off with the adhesive lint roller.

More Simple Home Cleaning Ideas: How to Clean Tarnished Silver Quickly and Easily

Dealing With Stained or Discolored Lampshades

Sometimes you run into an issue where you have both dust and a stain or discoloration to deal with on a beautiful lampshade. Maybe there was a nearby food splatter leaving grease stains, or maybe you found a beautiful vintage lampshade while you were out antiquing and you’d like to see if you can save it. If you’d like to see if you can figure out how to remove stubborn staining from a fabric lampshade, you have a few options.

To avoid water spots or further staining, it’s best to use a method similar to what you would use to clean furniture and upholstery. You can use dishwashing detergent, dish soap, or other similar cleaning agents. As with most cleaning projects, specialty cleaning products aren’t necessary and the basic all purpose cleaners you have around the house will work just fine. You’ll also want a lint-free cleaning cloth or cleaning towel and a gentle scrub-brush to help you to wash away the offending mess.

When you apply the cleaning solution to the stain, the goal is to use as little water as possible, so the moisture will evaporate quickly without leaving water stains behind. To do this, mix up a bowl of soapy water and scoop out just the bubbles on top to apply to the stain. Softly scrub the stain away, using as little water as possible, then wipe away any excess bubbles.

If you’d like to try using a commercial spray stain remover, make sure you test it on an inconspicuous part of the lampshade first because the fabrics that are used for lampshades are not typically meant to be laundered.

If you find that your lampshade is still discolored, you can always paint your lampshade to give it new life!

Old-fashioned cleaning ideas that still work: 8 Baking Soda Cleaning Hacks From When People Knew How to Clean House

More Clever Cleaning Uses for Lint Rollers

While you have your lint roller out, there are quite a few other places to use them around the house, particularly if you have cats or if it’s a very dusty time of year.

I love to use my lint rollers to clean the part of my velvet curtains that the cat rubs up against when he walks by or when he’s sleeping on various parts of our furniture. They also work really well for removing dust, hair, and fur on upholstered headboards, the tops of sofa cushions, and for textured throw pillows that you don’t want to damage by vacuuming or in the washing machine.

Read next: 12 Simple Homekeeping Tools That Will Actually Change Your Life

I hope you enjoy this trick for cleaning lampshades as much as I do!

This post contains affiliate links.