Apr 9, 2009
Taking care of your outdoor furniture
Most of the outdoor furniture are pretty durable and needs very little care and maintenance. However, one needs to keep the furniture pieces clean with some light care to maintain its new look. It is pretty easy to clean and care for your outdoor furniture because it does not involve polishing or reupholstering.
If you have a range of the durable outdoor wicker furniture, it is even easier to care for them because all you need to do is to ensure it is dust-free and clean. That’s for presentation sake, of course. You don’t even need to clean if you don’t want to. But imagine the horror of your guests if you were to have a nice quiet evening outdoors and they suddenly sat down on a dust-filled chair!
Cleaning out the dust from woven wicker furniture is fairly easy as you only need the vacuum cleaner with its brush attachment. All you need to do is to brush following the direction of the weave to suck up all the accumulated dust. As for the small corners and tight crevices, you will need to use smaller brushes such as old toothbrushes or paintbrushes with short bristles.
After the dusting, you can then use a damp cloth to give your outdoor furniture a nice wipe down. This is to clean up any stains or oily residue from too much handling or any food spillage you might not have noticed earlier. Just use some mild soapy water and it should be able to do the job to clean out any stains. Remember to give it a wipe down with clear water to rinse out the soapy solution you used.
Source: Wikipedia
If you are using teak outdoor furniture, then caring for it may be a bit different, depending on the quality of the furniture. Some may need to go for a whole new layer of finishing while some you only need to give it a good damp cloth wiping and you are all set. If it is natural wicker furniture, then you have your work set for you because it is slightly more complicated.
Natural wicker tends to dry out in low humidity areas so to maintain the moisture in the wicker, you can rinse the pieces in clear water. At the same time you can use a hose to wash it out. Then to dry it, use a dry rag to wipe it down and then let the water drain completely outside. Do not bring the furniture inside if it was not completely dried or else it will spoil.
