How To Clean Patio Cushions With Mildew – Outdoor furniture helps add personality and life to your patio or deck. It’s great when you want to relax outdoors, enjoy the weather or even have some privacy. Having patio furniture sounds like a great idea, but it has its drawbacks. The biggest one is that your outdoor furniture can become infected with mold and mildew if not properly maintained.
Mold and mildew don’t just make your furniture look unattractive. They can also create an unpleasant environment and pose a health hazard. They can cause odor and even lead to health conditions such as asthma, allergies, irritated eyes, headaches and even lung problems.
How To Clean Patio Cushions With Mildew
Fortunately, mold and mildew are easy to detect, prevent, and even remove. Keep reading to find out how.
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Mold and mildew can grow anywhere, but they tend to grow and thrive on moist surfaces. So it’s almost inevitable that your outdoor cushions will be subject to mold and mildew at some point if you live in a damp or rainy place.
You can determine if your patio cushions are infected with mold, mildew or both by knowing their basic physical characteristics.
Mold is a surface fungus that looks mostly green or black. However, it can also appear as blue, yellow or green spots or discoloration. It can be oily in nature and look almost velvety or hazy. Mold also has a foul and musty smell.
Similarly, mold is also a fungal infection. However, it appears as spots that are grey, yellow or white. Manta is powdery or fluffy in texture.
How To Clean Patio Cushions [easy Guide]
It is relatively easy to prevent mold and mildew from growing on your outdoor furniture cushions. You can do this easily by following the given tips:
Even with preventative measures, it’s not impossible for mold and mildew to infect your outdoor furniture cushions, and we’ve written a comprehensive guide to cleaning outdoor furniture cushions. such as those in your garden or patio. So now you might be worried about your outdoor furniture and you might be asking something like “how to get rid of black mold from patio furniture cushions?”
Below are some methods you can use to easily get rid of mold and mildew that may be growing on the cushions of your outdoor furniture:
Bleaching is a great way to get rid of mold and mildew stained outdoor furniture cushions. This method is also great for sanitizing as it also helps remove any fungus, bacteria and germs that may be living on your outdoor cushions.
How To Clean Patio Cushions 101
However, this method has a number of disadvantages. Firstly, bleach is a toxic substance. It can irritate skin, eyes and even cause lung damage if inhaled. That’s why you need to make sure you take the right precautions when working with bleach. These precautions include wearing protective equipment such as rubber gloves, safety glasses and an apron before working with bleach.
Another downside to working with bleach is that it can discolour the fabric of your cushions. So before you start bleaching your cushions, make sure they are actually bleachable. You can perform the following test to find out if your pillows are bleach resistant:
Start by adding 2 tablespoons of bleach to ΒΌ cup of water. Place a drop of this solution on a less visible part of the pillow. Then you have to wait for the stain to dry, which takes about a minute. If your pillow has not changed color by the end of this process, it means it is safe to bleach.
The borax method is another common way to remove mold from pillowcases. The process involves using a mineral salt called borax, also known as sodium borate.
How To Clean Outdoor Cushions (and Keep Them Looking Like New!)
This method is quick and easy to perform. It’s great for getting rid of all kinds of bad smells, mold, mildew and dirt that might have gotten on your pillows.
However, you should not use this method if you have pets or children around, as borax is a toxic substance that can be fatal if swallowed. It can also cause mild skin irritation. You can easily avoid this irritation by wearing gloves.
The dish soap method is a simple and easy way to get rid of mold and mildew. This method is great because it requires materials that are already present in every home. It’s also a good choice if you don’t want to be too hard on your pillows.
The white vinegar method is an environmentally friendly and non-toxic way to get rid of mold and mildew on outdoor furniture cushions. It also helps prevent further outbreaks of mould. However, this method is ineffective if your cushions are heavily affected by mold.
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Mold and mildew can affect the look of your garden furniture and even affect your health if you don’t take care of it (if you’re wondering if you should store cushions on your garden furniture, we’ve written a full guide). Fortunately, it is easy to prevent and even treat if it starts to grow. For the last three weeks, my family have come over to help us paint the outside of our house. And let me tell you, painting the outside of your house is a LOT of work. So while the boys painted, my mom and I worked on cleaning the garage and back deck. We are getting things ready for winter. Before I pack up my outdoor gear, I always make sure our patio furniture cushions are clean. So, I’m going to break down the step by step process of cleaning patio cushions and cushion covers without ever putting anything in the washing machine!!
You see, with two children and a full time job + blog… it’s hard for us to keep up with all the support of life in the country. Plus, everything includes living on a large piece of land! And one of those things we’re behind on is cleaning the porch cushions. We bought two cute patio chairs two seasons ago. But after leaving the pillows outside in storms and wet weather several times, they got stained. And there was mold on them!!
So today I wanted to show you how to clean and disinfect patio cushions the easy way!!! Trust me, these cleaning tips will help you clean your outdoor furniture. It will remove stains, tree sap, loose dirt, mold, bird droppings and various other stains that may have landed on your patio. So follow these simple steps below. You won’t be disappointed (even if you don’t have removable covers).
First, I put my trusty AutoRight steam cleaner to work. The great thing about this upholstery tool is that not only does it help remove dirt, it also kills 99% of the bacteria it comes in contact with, so I know I’m not only make the upholstery LOOK cleaner, but they are also bacteria free when I’m done!!
Patio Cushion & Outdoor Furniture Cleaning
It’s just one side of two pillows, but you can tell…they were dirty. The other cushions had green mold on the back and black spots on them. Needless to say, we never sat in them.
So I first made this cleaning solution, put it in a spray bottle and sprayed it on the patio cushions. Then let it sit for about 15 minutes.
I used about 1 tablespoon of borax, mixed with about 3-4 tablespoons of Dawn liquid dish soap. I then filled the rest of the bottle with 3-4 cups of warm water and let it dissolve in the spray bottle.
There is no “correct” recipe for this. Adjust the Borax and Dawn dishwashing detergent according to the size of your bottle. The mixture will work well whether you use the perfect amounts or not. I recommend having at least a cup of borax on hand in case there is a lot of build up in your outdoor area.
The Best Way To Clean Outdoor Furniture
I sprayed it on my cushions and once it was wet I pulled out my trusty AutoRight and got to work!
The AutoRight comes with a lot of different tools, so I used the steamer and the cleaning brush and the crevice tool for the chairs. The steamer got rid of all the bacteria and the detergent took care of the stains. The crevice tool helped clean between the fabric parts of the chair (and knocked out a ton of creepy bugs living inside the chair! EW!).
I scrubbed all the cushions really well with the nylon scrubbing tool, went over them again with the steamer, then rinsed them with the garden hose and put them in the sun for 24 hours to air dry.
Two very clean and beautiful chairs! Are they perfect? No. There are still a few small spots that won’t go away completely, but overall they look good. The manta and green spots are gone, the excess watermarks are gone and they look brighter and cleaner with no discoloration!
How To Clean Outdoor Cushions And Remove Stains
AutoRight steam cleaner works
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