One of the more tedious aspects of having to wear glasses is undoubtedly constantly keeping them clean. Whether it’s oily fingerprints, random smudges and scratches or residue from rain or other liquids, keeping your lenses clean and transparent can be a bit of a nightmare, especially if you enjoy spending time outdoors getting down and dirty.
When the need arises, you may be tempted to pop them off and give ’em a rub on your t-shirt or blouse as a quick fix, but this can often only increase your chances of scratching and damaging your lenses, leading to you having to replace them a lot sooner than may be necessary.
In this article, we’ll be looking at some ingenious ways to keep your lenses clean and scratch-free so that you need never worry about dirty or damaged specs again. So, let’s dive straight in.
Microfibre Cloths
We’ll start with the simplest solution, microfibre cloths.
While not exactly your typical hack, these lens-saving little bad boys will keep your lenses clear and smudge free whenever and wherever you need them.
As their name suggests, microfibre cloths use fibers that are 1.0 denier or smaller. To put that into perspective, a single strand of silk is 1 denier or roughly 1/5 the diameter of a human hair.
The reason these cloths are so handy is, due to their size, they are able to pick up even the tiniest specs of dust and dirt, making them extremely handy for keeping your glasses spec free.
One point to keep in mind is that in order for them to work to the best of their ability, you’ll need to keep your microfibre cloths clean. To somewhat state the obvious, the dirtier they are, the less effective they’ll be.
Toothpaste
Next up we have toothpaste. While you may not want to clean your glasses with toothpaste in the same way you clean your teeth, it can be incredibly useful in removing scratches from your lenses.
By applying a pea-sized amount of a non-abrasive toothpaste to your lenses, you can buff away most light scratches with a cotton ball or some other gentle material by gently rubbing the affected area in small circles until the scratch is gone.
For larger or deeper scratches, you may need to do repeat this process more than once to achieve the desired result.
One of the reasons this technique is incredibly handy is that everybody (we hope) has toothpaste readily available in their home.
It’s also been recommended that, if you have anti-scratch surfacing on your lenses, you may want to remove this before using this method as it will make getting to the scratch a lot more difficult and it obviously hasn’t done you much good if you’re looking for ways to fix scratches, so why keep it?
Shaving Foam
If you’re a glasses wearer, you’ve no doubt been in situations where your specs have fogged up and completely distorted your vision.
This can happen at the worst of times such as when cooking and can lead to accidents such as burnt hands or spilling hot water, neither of which are ideal when you can barely see.
Luckily, some clever clogs out there worked out that cleaning your glasses with shaving foam creates a protective layer on your lenses that can prevent them from fogging up.
By reducing the surface tension of the water on your lenses, the detergents in shaving foam stop water from forming lots of little droplets and creates a film that you can see through a lot better.
So, the next time you know it’s your turn to cook, pop a little bit of shaving foam on your specs, rub it in and then go fearlessly into the kitchen, knowing your risk of fogging up is no more.
Liquid Soap
Not only does liquid soap clean through the food and grease on your dinner plates, it can also be used to remove oily fingerprints and smudges from your glasses.
As you would expect from something designed to cut through grease, this type of soap has a variety of uses around the house and making sure your glasses are clean and clear is one of them.
Just a small amount applied to your glasses can clean both lenses and frames and leave them clean and ready for use.
However, you’ll need to ensure that your soap is free of alcohol, vinegar, bleach and ammonia as these substances can discolor lenses and damages anti-glare or scratch-resistance coatings.
This method can provide a cheaper alternative to traditional, shop-bought glasses cleaners and are even more environmentally friendly.
As we’ve seen, there are a number of alternative ways to clean your glasses that don’t include having to spend money on specialty cleaning products for your specs, helping you save money and also prolong the life of your glasses.
As previously mentioned, using anything other than a microfibre cloth or similar material will only increase the risk of damaging your lenses and so should be avoided.
By doing so, you can prolong the life of your lenses and save yourself from having to replace them sooner than need be.
Are you looking for glasses that not only look great but are easy to clean too? Check out these Vista MO94 glasses.
So, are there any methods we’ve left out that you feel should be included? Do you have any home-tested techniques that worked wonders for your glasses?
Sound off in the comments and let us know which techniques you’ve tried and which methods you think work best.
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