Sparkle Plenty, a spray on chandelier cleaner that I tried a few years ago, is amazing in two ways. It works amazingly well and it's priced amazingly high. Here's how to make your own crystal chandelier cleaning for $1.85.
Blue is the most loved colour around the world. Blue! Even among women in Thailand. Women everywhere as a matter of fact. That's right. The favoured colour among the majority of women in the world is not pink or purple or polkadotsparkle. It's blue.
The colour of life's essential elements - the water, the sky, and the Windex.
I've always owned at least one crystal chandelier and dreaded cleaning it so much I just didn't. A crystal chandelier loses a bit of its charm when it's covered in grease and cat hair unless you're one of those avant garde types.
So months, sometimes years, after I should have, I'd take the chandelier apart and wash all the crystals by hand with Windex. Sometimes I'd put all the chandelier crystals into the the dishwasher to clean them.
There had to be a better (easier, less annoying) way.
I'd known about spray cleaning chandeliers for years but never bought the stuff for fear it would be money wasted. But for the sake of this blog and science I went out and stole some from my local hardware store.
I created a diversion by pointing at 1 of the 15 men in the hardware store wearing a plaid shirt and a beard, and yelled OH MY GOD IT'S BOB VILA.
30 seconds later he was being mobbed for selfies and I was strolling out with a bottle of Sparkle Plenty stuffed in my socks. Stealing household cleaners is a rite of passage every person should experience once.
Once I got home I tried it, it worked and I got to work deciphering what exactly Sparkle Plenty was made out of.
All you do is spray the cleaner on your chandelier (a lot ... you have to spray so much that it's actually dripping off your chandelier) and the dirt drips away.
Repeat until the water dripping off of the chandelier is clear.
Sparkle Plenty smelled like Windex so that's where my research started; figuring out what Windex is made of.
After an hour or so I had formulated a recipe for a DIY chandelier cleaner that would cost a fraction of what the Sparkle Plenty would have cost had I paid for it.
Sparkle Plenty is around $12 for a 32 ounce bottle. This DIY version will cost $1.85 for the same amount.
Table of Contents
DIY Spray Chandelier Cleaner
Most cleaning products are made up of distilled water and a bunch of other stuff. Often either ammonia or isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol).
After checking the MSDS and online ingredients of Sparkle Plenty I discovered the main ingredient is distilled water. The reason for that is distilled water will evaporate without leaving any mineral spots on the crystals. See? Everything is better once it's distilled. Just ask barley or rye.
Because I had both things on hand, I mixed a concoction of 1 part rubbing alcohol with 3 parts DISTILLED water.
I took my homemade chandelier cleaner over to the other half of my chandelier and started spraying just like I did with the Sparkle Plenty. The results were exactly the same as far as I could tell.
The one difference I noticed is that the Sparkle Plenty seemed to have something in it to make it a tiny bit thicker. It didn't drip off quite as quickly as my homemade chandelier cleaner. Something that made it almost a bit glycerin-like, but I don't think it actually contains glycerin.
Point is, drip dry chandelier cleaner works whether it's store bought (stolen) or made.
How to Spray Clean Your Crystal Chandelier
- Cover the floor or table underneath the chandelier with towels.
- Turn off the light.
- Cover the lightbulbs and sockets with plastic so the spray doesn't get in them.
- Spray the chandelier continuously until the drips coming off of it are clear. Not gucky.
Cleaning a Really Dirty Chandelier
If your chandelier is a total disaster, like the one in my kitchen that was covered in 10 years of french fry grease, then you're gonna have to hand clean your chandelier by spraying a microfibre cloth or glove with chandelier cleaner or warm soapy water or Windex and rubbing each crystal clean.
Sorry. That's just the way it is and you're going to have to suck it up, but I'm sure you can because you're tough, you're resilient, you're part of the super-cool chandelier cleaning gang.
Once you do that horrible job one time, you'll be able to maintain your chandelier by just spraying it with a chandelier cleaner. I'd say maybe 3 or 4 times a year.
The choice is yours. Store bought or homemade with Isopropyl Alcohol. They both work. The store bought cleaner will cost you $12-$15 for 32 ounces. The homemade cleaner will cost you $1.85 for the same amount. A 32 ounce bottle will last for several chandelier cleanings.
Spray On Crystal Chandelier Cleaner.
Materials
- rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol)
- distilled water
Instructions
- Mix 1 part rubbing alcohol with 3 parts distilled water in a spray bottle.
- Cover the floor or table underneath the chandelier with towels.
- Turn off the light.
- Cover the lightbulbs and sockets with plastic so the spray doesn't get in them.
- Spray the chandelier continuously until the drips coming off of it are clear. Not gucky.
Notes
- If your chandelier is *really* dirty and greasy you'll have to clean it by hand first using a microfibre cloth and soap and water (or Windex).
- Then you can maintain your chandelier with this spray on, drip off cleaner.
The smell will transport you back to another rite of passage in your life. Sitting in a chair at the mall, while the most qualified of all medical professionals, a teenage girl working in a junk jewellery store, wipes your earlobes with a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol before piercing your lobes with a rusty old hole punch she grabbed from her pencil case.
:)
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Kelli
Such a simple fix...now if I only had a chandie or two. Of course I don't count my chandelier earrings, but it might do the trick there too.
So speaking of cleaning years of greasy, fur covered guck from things...can you give tips on that next? I collect teapots, and also have a cat. My teapots are atop my kitchen cabinets, so naturally they all have a lovely film of grease, dust and ick on them. Is there an easy cleaning and degreasing fix for them other than taking them down one by one (about 20 of them ugh) and washing by hand??? I await your answer with baited coffee breath.
Laurie
Kelli, try straight rubbing alcohol. I use it on my stainless stove hood. The dusty grease comes right off!
Laurie
BUT, you will have to take them down and do it by hand. I don't think spraying them will do anything.
Louise
I say use that cleaner with the hose that Pat mentioned.
Of course, cleaning up the kitchen after that might be more trouble than pulling down and cleaning each teapot! :-)
Gretchen Sexton
Genius!
(Now all I need is a chandelier...I love yours!)
Kathy Houk
There is a twist in your brain that is joyfully funny. Bob Vila in a hardware store, too good.
Jasmine
If this works I will love you forever. (I already like you a lot, so there's that). I have a Swarovski chandelier with 649 crystals. I know that because it takes me hours to clean each and every one while wearing my gloves and I've counted them. By the end my neck, shoulders and arms are seized, but I can't stop looking up because it's so beautiful. I go through this a couple of times a year. If I can spray it I promise I will do it more often. I had heard that these things don't work, but I'm trusting you on this one Karen. As soon as the weather gets back to normal (there's SNOW here in Victoria and the whole city has ground to a halt), I will hit the hardware store!
scott
Hi Jasmine, I am curious if the solution worked for you?
Cathy Reeves
Years ago a coworker gave me this window cleaner:
1 gallon distilled water, pour out 16 oz .
Add 2 Tbs Prell shampoo and 16oz Isopropyl Alcohol.
I'm not sure any old shampoo works; I found Prell at a dollar store or Walmart, I don't remember.
Cred
This makes me want a chandelier just so I can clean it. It used to be my job when I was a kid- I always expected I would damage the fasteners on the end of the crystal string. I loooove that sparkle plenty actually works- when a product does what it says it will, I'm usually happy to buy it but I just can't resist a DIY sub. And when they work just as well as store bought, I feel like I'm sticking it to the man.
I feel a great deal of satisfaction when I have a cleaning hack for something that is a pain in the butt, like cleaning windows. I do mine inside and out several times a year and it makes you look like a cleaning superstar (I'm far from it) because others rarely do it. Clean chandeliers would have the same effect.
Wish I could put your cleaner to use maybe I'll find something else it works for.
Alena
Your husband?
Alena
Ha! I had my own experience with Windex yesterday, but not so good one.
I needed to find a spray bottle (to spray a plant). I had a few spray bottles in the past and they all stopped working after a while. But I usually save empty bottles from whatever that comes in a spray bottle, like Windex etc. So I fished out an old Windex bottle from the basement and because there was about half a teaspoon of Windex still left in it, I sprayed it on my kitchen window (right above the sink) that always gets splashed on a lot, and a living room window that has traces of my dog's nose art. I rubbed the windows with a paper towel and to my horror, it resulted in a thick fog like film coating the window pane. Then I tried vinegar to get the film off - it helped only a tiny bit, but not a lot. It took two more applications of another cleaner (one of those 'green' cleaners) to get it completely off.
Old Windex no good?
Kasia
love that you call it your dog's "nose art"! I've never heard anyone else use that phrase. My dad used to say that about all the prints left on his car windows. thanks for that memory!
Mary W
The post I've been waiting eleven years for! I have lots of "antique white painted metal flower petals" on mine so hopefully it won't rust before drying. I really don't care, though. The rust would cover the dust. Gee, they are very similar words! Lesson learned: Life is either dusty or rusty. LOL
Marilyn
Well I will try that as the cleaner I bought at the lighting store is useless ! I have never seen sparkle plenty ..I have used the old school method and I have two chandeliers ..
Sheryl
This is such a timely post! I just bought 5 sets of glass doorknobs at the flea market yesterday, for a project. I wasn't looking forward to polishing my new, old knobs, so I will try this before I waste my elbow grease on them. Thanks Karen!
Sherry
Oh my gosh! I'm so excited too meet someone else who gets giddy over products that actually do what they say they do! I feel a it's a life changing event whatever the actual product is. Fire sine reason, my friends and family find this amusing...
Great post as always, though I agree with Robert. There are no giant chandeliers in my future. They are beautiful but I prefer to visit and let someone else have the responsibility for cleaning!
Jack Barr
How to date oneself. In my youth Sparkle Plenty was the beautiful baby daughter of B.O. Plenty and Gravel Gertie in the old Dick Tracy comic strip....... certainly not just a mixture of distilled water and isopropyl alcohol dripping from a chandelier.
Karen
LOL. I did not know that. ~ karen!
Jennifer Lee
You beat me to it; I was going to say that!
Melissa
Well done sticky fingers!! Now I can buy that chandelier in confidence knowing I'll be able to clean it!
Pat
Bob Vila and This Old House! Classic! There is always a home made version of stuff out there like that famous toilet spray so your poop smells pretty. Made that for Christmas gifts. And that window cleaner that you attach to your hose so you don't need to go up a ladder for top windows, made it. I am a "Karen" follower who has learned from the guru that there is always a way to make your own stuff! Thanks for all the inspiration.
Cred
Hey Pat, would you have the link to or the recipe for that window cleaner you attach to a garden hose? Where do you get a bottle like that, that you can attach to a hose?
I have a couple windows that I can only reach by ladder, this would be a helpful DIY.
Cindy
Pat
Hi Cindy,
I am overseas right now and have the link on my computer back home. Sorry. Try googling some variations on the theme. I used the old bottle from the store purchased product I had used up. Now I am thinking about what I will use if that one fails. Wish I could be more help.
Pat
Pat
To Cindy,
P.s. After reading Cathy's comment with shampoo, water and isopropyl rings a bell but use dish detergent instead. Something like that. Cannot recall any ratio.
Cred
Thanks, Pat. I will google it and see if I find something similar to what you've described.
Stephanie Hobson
I need that recipe too!
Helene
you guys are killing me, I haven't laughed so hard in a long time, could be the mood I'm in or maybe it's the wine, but that Christmas gift idea had me falling down laughing, so was the reference to the smell reminiscent of the ear piercer at the Mall.
You guys should be writing comedy.
Maria
My aunt taught me another trick about this. To catch the drips, hang an umbrella upside down underneath the chandelier.
Vicky
Wow 🤩 awesome idea!!!!!! Doing it now
TucsonPatty
Several times over the years I have seen helpful household hints telling us to use an upside-down umbrella hung from the middle of the chandelier, to catch the drips. I was hoping to see is that really worked! Thanks for the new cleanser recipe! Will it also work on pimples, as demonstrated in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"? ; )
Nancy
Tusconpatty to get rid of zits dot a small amount of a baking soda based toothpaste (Arm and Hammer) over your zit. Zit disappears overnight.
nanxy
Where I used to live, there were roaches, Windex kills roaches on the spot. Now, where I live, I have great big flies, big shit flies, the worst kind. Windex is also very effective. I bet if you got a big sprayer full of Windex or Dawn with distilled water, your chandelier would be awesome. I don't like bleach. If Windex or Dawn doesn't do it, it doesn't get done. Well, I have to include Oxyclean, it's pretty great also. Ok, Ok, I have isopropyl alcohol that is 70% or 99%, do you have a preference?
Gerri Ford
I heard about that Windex trick from Terminix. When this gent came to do his quarterly spraying he said that If I sprayed windex around the doors and thresholds no bugs would enter. Now getting back to the chandeliers, not all chandeliers are crystal. I have a huge acrylic chandelier that looks like crystal. Do you think I could use an alcohol spray on it? I sure don't want to ruin it. It cost me a bundle.
nancy
Try some straight alcohol on 1/4 of one "crystal". If it survives, doesn't get foggy or weird, you'll know, you're in like Flynn.
Heidi Ruckriegel
Hmmm... I wonder if that would work on other glass things, like this tricky window with bird poo on it? Guess not...
Robert
Who's Bob Vila?
Also totally convinced me of never owning a YUGE chandelier since someone has to clean it up and 3 to 4 times a year seems to much to even consider it
Mark
Who's Bob Vila? You just lost your internet license my friend. haha Let me help... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Vila
Robert
Does not ring any bells on my cyber, televised or bibliophile corners
TucsonPatty
We now need to know on what continent Mark lives and how old (approximately) he is. I can't believe it has actually been that long since I watched Bob Vila! Loved This Old House!
TucsonPatty
Oops, not Mark - Robert!!
Robert
I'm a 23 years old from a little town in Mexico who spent about the first 10 years of my life watching whatever home improvement related international TV show I could get including cooking shows and infomercials and that man does not sound familiar to me in the slightest
TucsonPatty
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Old_House. Wikipedia says it began as a 13 part series in 1979 (no wonder you don't know it, you young whippersnapper) ; ). (I recently turned 64 years old!) but it is still ongoing in its umpteenth iteration! It was and is shown on PBS stations and you would probably love watching it, in all its glory.
Alena
Oh my gosh. I can't believe that is somebody reading Karen's blog who doesn't know who Bob Vila is.
There is an even better link - I dare you to click it!
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Bob+Vila
martina
I think he might BE Bob Villa! Robert = Bob? It would not surprise me if he was a fan of Karen.
John
I'm a professional chandelier cleaner, thousands in 21 years.
Unless you're chandeliers are where the windows or doors are open all the time, or close to the stove ONCE a year if you want, but a good cleaning should last two or more years.
Spray drip and dry cleaners. I've used them all and have not found ONE that works as advertised. The dirt and grime just doesn't drip off sparkling clean
Kristin Conley
Karen, your posts are always so apropos!
I just bought an antique chandelier... And I am so looking forward to hanging it. Maybe you have some ideas and info about hanging light fixtures?
Cheers,
Kristin
Emily Parker
Hi Kristin,
i think you should look into this blog, they may help you hanging your light fixture issue.
-https://bestlightfor.com/chandelier-ideas/can-you-hang-a-chandelier-from-track-lighting/
-https://bestlightfor.com/chandelier-ideas/can-you-hang-a-chandelier-from-a-recessed-light/
-https://bestlightfor.com/chandelier-ideas/can-you-hang-a-chandelier-from-a-drop-ceiling/
Thank You