Designing patio furniture may easy, but taking care of the patio furniture can be very difficult. The cleaning process of the patio furniture is not only a time consuming process, but it is also a cumbersome process. If you have patio furniture that is made of plastic, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Contrary to popular belief, it is very easy to clean plastic patio furniture. To clean the plastic patio furniture, take clean cloth and damp it with mild detergent, and then gently scrub the furniture. Finally, rinse by hosing down.

If you have wicker outdoor furniture, you may have to spend a little more time for the cleaning purpose. For the cleaning purpose, you may need a good soft scrub brush, which is readily available in the market or any household store. For the cleaning purpose, you may also need a mild oil based soap. A good oil based soap that is generally used for the cleaning purpose is Murphy oil soap. After you have all the items for the cleaning purpose, you may start the cleaning process.

To clean the wicker outdoor furniture, take the soft scrub brush and damp it with water and the oil based soap. Then, scrub the wicker outdoor furniture gently. You may have to spend a bit more time on the scrubbing part so be prepared with strong muscles. Finally, after the scrubbing, you must rinse by hosing down. Washing the wicker outdoor furniture is very easy and you can do it on your own. If you need any assistance on the cleaning process, you can watch any washing videos that are easily available on the Internet.

If you have a patio umbrella, which has a rod made of teak wood, then you will have to clean it with mild oil based soap. The major advantage of using mild oil based soap is that it cleans the surfaces without reacting with the surfaces. Often, if you use a strong detergent for the cleaning purpose, you will find that the detergent damages the outdoor items in the long run. To clean the patio umbrella, you will also need a soft scrub brush. You will have to spend some extra time for scrubbing the canopy of the patio umbrella.

Cleaning a patio cushion is not easy. For the cleaning purpose, you may need a hose, dish soap, sponge, and a rag. To start with, place the patio cushion on the floor and spray with the hose. Then, take the sponge and put few drops of dish soap on it. Scrub both sides of the patio cushions. Scrubbing the patio cushion will take maximum time as you will have to allow the dish soap to gently remove all the dirt and mud particles. After scrubbing the patio cushion on both sides, hose down and remove all the soap.

After washing the outdoor furniture, outdoor cushion, and patio umbrella, you will have to ensure that they are dried properly. If there is too much water on the surfaces of the outdoor furniture, outdoor cushion, or patio umbrella, you can take a dry cloth and wipe the surfaces. If you have bright sunshine, then you can skip the drying step as the sun’s rays will do the drying work for you. When you compare the patio furniture with the indoor furniture, you will have to spend more time cleaning and washing the former.

If there are stains on the outdoor furniture, outdoor cushion, or patio umbrella, then washing and cleaning with mild detergent may not be sufficient. Some stains are very rigid and do not come off even with the mild detergent and scrubbing. In such instances, you may need a bleach to wash off the stain. When you are using bleach, make sure that you treat only the area that has the stain and not the entire patio furniture or patio cushion.

You will have to first prepare the bleach detergent mixture for the stains. To make the bleach detergent mixture, take one cup bleach and half a cup of mild detergent and mix these two ingredients in a gallon of water. Then, use this mixture to clean or scrub off the stain. Some good tips for cleaning outdoor items are:

o    Keep covers on outdoor furniture

o    Wash off the stains when they are fresh

o    Use mild detergent

o    Wash the patio items regularly