Take it out of the box and use it. I've been surprised on more than one occasion when I thought I was playing a record that was already clean and it didn't sound right until I gave it a spin on the VPI. It's not a bad idea to clean all records, including brand new ones. It's surprising how much dust and crud can be on a brand new record. Seems to help with humidity/static issues also.
To clean or not to clean?
I bought a VPI record cleaner but I have yet to use it or even take it out of the box. Many of my records are new or used mint and don’t seem to need cleaning. The ones that do are all old recordings and I am not inspired to break out the VPI. I am new to vinyl but have many, many inherited only records. I think many may be enjoyable and, maybe, good recordings. Just listening for a few weeks now, I am starting to run out of clean records. Have ordered quite a few new records (180 gram and Japanese) but should really start checking out all my “dad’s records”!