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I have a ceiling fan with a light kit in my house that USED to be controlled by two toggle switches. The light and ceiling fan used to be controlled separately - you flip one switch to turn on the light and the second switch to turn on the fan. I installed a new ceiling fan, and the entire unit is controlled only by the light toggle switch. The ceiling fan control is now operated by a remote control (and the ceiling fan can only be used if the light toggle switch is in the "On" position, but the light can also be turned off by the remote if you want to run the fan without the light on.)

So now I have a double wall plate with two switches on it, but only one of those switches actually does anything. Is there anything else that I can do with that second switch? I'm just OCD and can't stand knowing that there is a switch in the room that does not actually do anything (literally it's not connected to anything at this point.)

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  • Do you have something else you want to control with it, or do you simply want it gone? Or are you OK with switching the ceiling fan remote out for a different remote that plays nicely with having wallbox controls as well?
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Commented Jul 16, 2019 at 22:37
  • Hello, and welcome to Home Improvement. Good question, and glad you got an answer; you should check it as "Answered" if you think it's good. And, you should probably take our tour so you'll know how best to participate here.
    – Daniel Griscom
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 0:00
  • Thank you both so much! I've marked the answer as "answered" and that is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks again!
    – James
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 12:49

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You can get a double blank plate with one toggle and the other part covered, like:

enter image description here

What you need to look for is 1 toggle 1 blank combination wall plate.

There are varieties available for regular toggle, Decora, etc.

You will need to cap any unused wires, from the switch you remove, with wire nuts, plus a little electrical tape to make sure they don't come loose (but the wire nut provides the actual insulation needed).

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