For the DE maf, just pull the sensor out.
The first time I cleaned it, I took everything out because A) I could not get the screws to come off easily the first time and I did not want to strip them and B) I wanted to clean everything in there anyway and it was a good thing because it was fairly dirty. Who knows how much air flow it impeded, I just wanted to do it.
But every time after that, I would take the two screws off the MAF housing, spray down the two hot wires, let them dry and then put it back on the MAF.