<p>Spring has sprung. How do you clean your outdoor furniture that has dirt and maybe even mildew on it from sitting outside or in a garage all winter long? </p>
<p>And better still, how do you keep it from getting dirty in the first place? </p>
<p>I find that every spring, I need to take around five hours to clean the furniture off before it’s usable. And then during the season, I have to do it again and again. What am I doing wrong?</p>
<p>What is your furniture made of?? </p>
<p>We have wrought iron which stays well- Some of it is covered over the winter, some not. We also have some teak which we store I. The garage and then retreat when we bring it out with teak oil stuff.</p>
<p>One thing we learned…we wash the furniture very thoroughly before we put it into the garage for the winter.</p>
<p>We also do NOT buy any resin furniture as it is just a magnet for scum and dirt.</p>
<p>We have a coated metal now that is nice. Chairs have the same coated metal frame and that nylon mesh looking seating. We have never had mildew with these.</p>
<p>I use Murphy’s Oil soap and warm water. It works okay , but I never really feel like it makes the furniture look a lot better , but at least the surface is cleaner</p>
<p>I’ve used SoftScrub, which definitely gets the dirt off and makes it white, but then I have to rinse it.</p>
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<p>You’re living in the northeast where there is lots of tree dirt, and shade for moss-type growth and mildew. Plus you’re using the outdoor furniture outside. 
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<p>I always joke that our outdoor furniture is an ongoing demonstration of why God invented houses and climate control. </p>
<p>Pressure washers can clean some things pretty well, but they are a little dangerous to use, and can take a long time to really clean certain areas. Also, they will damage the furniture if it is not very strong and properly finished. Elbow grease is probably cheaper and safer.</p>
<p>We put everything in the basement around November. ;)</p>
<p>VH, what is your furniture made from? We found that white resin was the worst. Before we inherited what we have now, we switched to the dark green resin. At least you couldn’t SEE the black spots that remained even after a thorough cleaning!</p>
<p>I also use Murphy’s. We have Tropitone with a mesh sling. We don’t use our power washer on the furniture, it just seems a little too rough. It is a time-consuming project and by the time I am finished, I hate the smell of the Murphy’s. I also wear gloves when I am cleaning because I think it is pretty tough on my hands.</p>
<p>I have two things: </p>
<p>One is some fake woven white wicker – I think it’s actually vinyl wrapped around metal – that’s impossible to get clean. Since it’s woven very tightly to look like wicker, dirt always remains in the depressed spaces. </p>
<p>The other is some sort of vinyl strips, also woven, but because the strips are like 2" wide, I can get into the depressed spaces. </p>
<p>For the first, I just put some water/Mr. Clean mixture on a damp cloth and wipe over the furniture. That gets off surface dirt but, as I mentioned, because it’s woven so tightly, there is a ton of dirt in the holes that I can’t deal with.</p>
<p>For the wide woven strips, I can get those pretty clean – but it takes about 15 minutes to do one chair.</p>
<p>We have coated aluminum patio furniture by Hanamint . It’s pretty and looks like cast iron and I don’t have to do anything to it. It was kind of expensive when we bought it 8 years ago but it will last forever.</p>
<p>VH - I might try the power washer on the wicker - at a low level. I once took patio furniture to the self-serve car wash (the Tropitone set I had prior to this one) and it actually worked pretty well. I used their big brushes and the suds setting. I picked a weekday at an off time, I wouldn’t be so rude as to hold up the line. I decided to try that approach since the furniture was almost twenty years old and I knew I would be replacing it in the next couple of years.</p>
<p>We have heavy teak deck furniture. DH blasts it with the pressure washer.</p>