Reviewed by Evan Lewis, PhD. Last updated August 2026.
How to disinfect nail clippers, in order: brush the nail dust out of the blades and pivot, wash them in hot soapy water, soak them in a disinfectant for the contact time its label states, then dry them fully. Step one decides everything after it. Nothing disinfects through a plug of packed keratin.
Why is a nail clipper worth bothering with?
Because of what it collects. Nail is dense keratin, and dermatophytes, the fungus behind athlete's foot and most nail fungus, feed on keratin and travel inside it.
A 2022 scoping review of household transmission found evidence of transmission in 44% to 47% of households with an affected member, and identified shared nail equipment as one of the documented routes. The same review recorded Trichophyton rubrum surviving 60 days inside a bottle of nail polish at 25 °C.
A clipper in a bathroom drawer is a friendlier place to sit than a bottle of nail polish. And a 2024 review of dermatophyte biology notes that in the external environment they remain viable for over six months.
What are the four steps, in order?
Brush, wash, soak, dry. Do them out of order and the last three stop working.
1. Get the debris out first
Open the jaws fully. Take an old toothbrush and work the blade edges, the underside of the lever and the pivot joint under running water. Nail dust packs into the pivot and sits there for years.
This is the step people skip, and skipping it is why the other three fail. A disinfectant works on a surface it can reach and wet. It does nothing to material buried inside a plug of compacted keratin.
2. Wash with hot water and soap
Dish soap is fine. Work the hinge open and shut a few times so the soapy water gets into the joint, then rinse properly. Soap lifts the skin oils that shield anything left behind.
3. Then disinfect
Disinfection is a soak, not a wipe. The thing that makes a household disinfectant work is contact time, and a quick wipe evaporates long before that time has passed.
Use a product intended for hard surfaces or instruments, follow the contact time printed on its label, and rinse afterwards if the label says to. Whatever you use, the metal has to stay wet for the stated duration. That is the entire mechanism.
4. Dry it completely
Air dry it open, not folded shut in a damp drawer. Soaking metal causes rust in the pivot, so a drop of light oil on the joint afterwards keeps the clipper working. A rusted, stiff clipper tears nail rather than cutting it, and torn nail is its own problem.
What do clinics do, and why isn't your kitchen that?
They autoclave. In a clinical setting, reusable instruments go through steam sterilisation in an autoclave. That's the standard, and it's the standard because it's validated, monitored and repeatable.
Boiling a clipper in a saucepan is not an autoclave. Neither is a wipe with rubbing alcohol, which is what most people picture when they hear the word sterilise. Household cleaning is worth doing and it's a different thing from sterilisation, and it's better to be honest about which one you're doing.
If your feet are cared for at a clinic, this is one of the reasons chiropodists and foot care nurses reprocess their instruments so carefully. It's also a fair thing to ask about at a first appointment.
What rule beats the method?
One person, one clipper.
Then, if a nail already looks affected, a second clipper kept only for that nail, and cut it last. This costs a few dollars and does more than any cleaning routine, because it removes the transmission route entirely instead of trying to interrupt it.
The same logic runs through the laundry, and the numbers there are specific. Testing on dermatophyte conidia found that a 60 °C wash removed them while a 40 °C wash did not, and that neither freezing nor heat drying did the job.
Nobody in the house is at fault for this. Shared bathroom items are normal, and the family that shares a clipper is not an unclean family. It's just a route, and routes can be closed.
Which tools can't be cleaned at all?
Anything porous. Metal clippers and nippers can be cleaned. Porous items can't be, not really.
- Emery boards and paper files. Single use in practice. They're layered card and abrasive, and nothing you do reaches inside that.
- Foam buffers and pumice. Same problem, worse. Replace rather than clean.
- Glass and crystal files. Non-porous, so these do clean properly. Worth the upgrade if you file often.
- Orange sticks. Wood. Single use.
What about a salon or a pedicure?
A good salon reprocesses metal tools between clients and uses single-use files and buffers. That's the standard to look for, and it's a reasonable thing to ask about.
Some people bring their own kit. That's a completely normal request and no decent technician minds. If you're considering cosmetic cover over a damaged nail, there are a few things worth knowing before you glue anything on.
How often should you do this?
For an ordinary household with healthy nails, a wash and dry after each use and a proper clean every month or two is proportionate. Nobody needs to disinfect a clipper weekly.
Step it up when there's something to contain: an affected nail in the house, a recent course of treatment, or a clipper that's been shared. Those are the moments where it earns the effort.
What if a nail is already affected?
Cleaning the clipper stops it travelling. It doesn't do anything for the nail, and it's worth being clear about the difference.
A thickened, yellowing or crumbling toenail is a slow job, because toenails grow at roughly 1.62mm a month and you're waiting on new growth to appear. Our EZ Clear Nails kit is built around a soak tray rather than a brush, because submerging the toe carries the solution under the nail edge and around the folds, which is where a drop or a paint-on never gets. It works best alongside professional trimming and thinning, not instead of it.
One thing it isn't: an instrument disinfectant. Sole Shield and EZ Clear Nails are made for skin and nails. Use a proper hard-surface product on the metal.
Common questions
How do you disinfect nail clippers?
Brush the nail dust out of the blades and pivot under running water, wash with hot soapy water while working the hinge, soak in a hard-surface disinfectant for the contact time on its label, then dry fully and oil the pivot. Removing the debris first is what makes the rest effective.
Can you sterilise nail clippers at home?
Not in the clinical sense. Sterilisation means steam autoclaving, which is validated and monitored. At home you can clean and disinfect, which meaningfully reduces what is on the tool. Boiling a clipper in a pan or wiping it with alcohol is not equivalent to an autoclave cycle.
Does rubbing alcohol clean nail clippers?
Only as far as it can reach, and only if it stays wet long enough. Alcohol evaporates quickly, so a quick wipe rarely achieves the contact time disinfection depends on. It also does nothing about packed nail debris in the pivot, which has to be brushed out mechanically first.
Can toenail fungus spread through nail clippers?
Shared nail equipment is a documented transmission route between household members. A 2022 scoping review found evidence of transmission in 44% to 47% of households with an affected person, and recorded Trichophyton rubrum surviving 60 days in nail polish at room temperature.
Should everyone in the house have their own clippers?
Yes, and it is the single most effective step here. One person, one clipper closes the route entirely rather than trying to interrupt it. If a nail already looks affected, keep a separate clipper for that nail and cut it last.
How often should nail clippers be cleaned?
Rinse and dry after each use, and do a full clean every month or two in an ordinary household. Increase that when there is an affected nail in the house, after a course of treatment, or any time the clipper has been shared with someone else.
How do you disinfect nail clippers for toenail fungus?
Same four steps, done more often, plus one addition. Brush the debris out, wash in hot soapy water, soak for the contact time on the label, dry it open. The addition is a second clipper kept only for the affected nail, cut last and cleaned on its own. Closing the route beats raising the strength of what you soak in.
How do you sanitize nail clippers?
Sanitise, disinfect and sterilise get used as if they were the same word and they are not. At home you are cleaning and disinfecting: debris out, hot soapy wash, a soak in a hard-surface product for its stated contact time, then a full dry. Sterilising means an autoclave cycle, and that lives in a clinic.
What nail clippers work best on thick toenails?
A heavy lever-style nipper with a straight jaw, rather than the small curved clippers sold for fingernails. Straight jaws cut across without rounding the corner, which is what leaves a spike behind, and the longer handle gives you the leverage a thick nail needs. Soak the nail in warm water first, cut in several small bites instead of one, and keep the pivot clean so the blades stay sharp. If the nail is thick enough to fight you, softening it first makes the whole job safer.
The bottom line
Brush, wash, soak, dry. In that order, because the order is the whole trick.
And if you only take one thing from this: buy a second clipper. It's cheaper than the routine and it works better.
For the survival figures behind all of this, see how long fungus lives on floors, shoes and towels. If the skin keeps flaring rather than the nail, why athlete's foot keeps coming back covers the rest of the loop.
Evan Lewis, PhD, specializes in natural and nutritional therapies for the prevention and management of chronic diseases and their complications. His research spans chronic disease, diabetes complications, clinical nutrition, and nerve health, including the development of topical iodine therapy for foot care and wound health. IodinePure products are listed with Health Canada as cosmetics. This article is general information, not a diagnosis.
Sources: Jazdarehee A, Malekafzali L, Lee J, Lewis R, Mukovozov I. Transmission of Onychomycosis and Dermatophytosis between Household Members: A Scoping Review. J Fungi (Basel). 2022;8(1):60. Dubljanin E, et al. Host-Pathogen Interaction and Resistance Mechanisms in Dermatophytes. Pathogens. 2024. Akhoundi M, et al. Effect of Household Laundering, Heat Drying, and Freezing on the Survival of Dermatophyte Conidia. J Fungi (Basel). 2022;8(5):546. Yaemsiri S, Hou N, Slining MM, He K. Growth rate of human fingernails and toenails in healthy American young adults. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2010.
