No body likes to site on dirty outdoor cushions. EWWW! GROSS! Your outdoor space should be a beautiful and clean retreat for you and your family. We understand that dust, pollen, mold and who knows what else can build up on the surface of your patio cushions. After all, they live outdoors and no matter how hard you try, they will become dusty and dirty. Your clean your interior surfaces. You exterior surfaces deserve the same treatment.
Maintaining your patio cushions is not hard, just takes a little bit of regular habit and rountine to keep your outdoor cushions looking fresh and new.
USE YOUR LEAF BLOWER!
First of all, you should be using your leaf blower every couple of days to blow away the top layer of dust and pollen. This is a super easy way to keep your cushions clean and fresh. Before you head to the patio for the evening, use your leaf blower. This is espeically helpful if you have allergies to pollen and mold. All these dirtly little particals are invisible to the eye but certainly not your nose!
USE YOUR VACUUM - WE KNOW YOU HAVE ONE!
During the summer, we really suggest using your vacuum every week or so, to remove the down and dirty dust and pollen that have made their way down into the cushion fabric fibers. Use a hand vac or your stick vacuum to remove the allergens and pet hair that live on the surface of the outdoor fabric. Don't forget to flip your cushoin over and vacuum the bottom size. Also a great time to use your leaf blower to clean the under side of your patio chair. Itsy bitsy spiders and teeny tiny bugs like to get all cozy on the underside of your patio chairs. Get them gone. Move along little critters.
CLEANING WITH SOAP AND WATER.
A couple times during the season, we suggest cleaning your outdoor cushions with soap and water. Lay your patio cushions out in an area such as your driveway, lawn or deck. Take them off the furniture. You need to clean the furniture separately from the cushions. Dawn dish soap is a simple and gentle way to clean basic dirt and pollen off your cushion fabric. Just spray down your patio cushions with some water, grab a bucket of warm water and add a squirt of dawn dish soap. Don't get all carried away now with the dish soap. A little goes a long way. If you add too mush soap, it will be hard to rinse in the end. So just a little squirt, not a BIIIIIIGGGG squirt. Splash some of the water/soap onto your cushion. Use a soft scrub brush and gently brush the surface. (if you have a tough stain, we will talk about that in another section). Rinse them thoroughly with your spray hose. If they have zippers (all of the new outdoor cushions we make have zippers) open the zipper and stand the cushion up on end and allow the foam and fabric to drain and dry.
It's ok for the foam to get wet. Really! We know many of you are OCD and are determined to take your cushion covers off and put them in the washing machine. We get asked this question every day. But WHY do you want to do this? Yes, putting your cushion covers in the washing machine gets them nice and clean. But putting your nice clean cushion covers back on dirty nasty foam, with pollen, dirt, and who knows what else living in the foam is just flat out disgusting! We kind of compare it to putting nice clean white socks on muddy feet. EWW.
In addition, getting your beautiful clean cushion cover back onto the old outdoor foam is quite a chore. And we commend you. If you and your significant other have become proficiant at putting the covers back on your patio cushions, please contact us. We need experienced people just like you.
The moral of the outdoor cushion story is - YOU DON'T NEED TO TAKE OFF THE COVERS TO CLEAN YOUR CUSHIONS.
But if you must, we get it. - Crazy people that you are!
HOW TO HANDLE TOUGH STAINS
We love our puppies and kitties and we love that they have a cozy comfy place to spend their busy days outside. Continued use of their favorite spot on the patio cushions can result in a dirty stain. We suggest using some Simple Green diluted in some water. Simple Green is a degreaser and does a great job of removing pet stains and danger. It's also great for stains from sun tan lotions. This in combination with the sun can really make your outdoor cushions look stained and dirty. Best to get your cushions clean as soon as you can. If possible, use a towel on top of your cushions when tanning lotions are used. Will save you a bunch of time and frustration.
OUTDOOR FABRICS ARE BLEACH CLEANABLE
Every outdoor fabric manufactuer we work with says that their fabrics are bleach cleanable. Does that mean pouring straight bleach onto a stain? NO NO NO. If you have a persitant stain, like wind, bbq sauce, fruit juice etc, outdoor fabric manufactureres recommend a MILD bleach solution. Check out our dedicated section on how to clean outdoor cushions. We have listed recommendations for each outdoor fabric manufacturer on how to clean their fabrics and deal with unique stains.
No matter how you decide to clean your outdoor cushions, just clean them every couple of months. If you put your patio cushions in storage over the Winter, be sure they are clean before you do so. Nothing worse than pulling out dirty old cushions for the next patio season.
