Keeping backyard furniture clean

[niccig]

So the answer may be we need to clean things more regularly.

We just redid our backyard and as live in SoCal, we can be out there year round. Problem is due to air quality, we get a layer of dust on everything. In the past, it’s been a pain to clean it off to use outside table. Now we’re going to have an outdoor couch, a couple of chairs, and fire pit in addition to dining table.

We may just need to go out there to brush/wipe things down more often so it’s not such a big job. Hoping as we’ll be outside more, we’ll keep it cleaner.


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[jgenie]

You can buy covers to fit everything. Pull off when you’re going to use your space and replace when you’re done. Still a pain but maybe less so than having to clean everything more often.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I’d buy covers. Much easier.


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[niccig]

We’re getting covers for our rainy days. I’d like to try to not use covers all the time as that is a pain too. We rarely used the backyard furniture, so it would be months between using it and we would have to clean it. Hoping now with the better set up and lights, we’ll use it all more often. We had no lights out there so rarely ate dinner outside or sat outside in nice weather. We had several lights put in so we can see!

I was reading about using leaf blower to blow off leaves and dust, use scotch guard exterior spray to help with water beading off pillows. I don’t mind doing quick wipe down of furniture as we use it. We’ll still need to do deep clean few times a year though


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[Zukini]

We use a handheld leaf blower to keep our outdoor dining and living areas clean and ready for use. We have a fair amount of construction dust from nearby properties and also a ton of tree pollen (on particularly bad days you can see it floating by in the air). DH also uses the blower to do a quick blast of air in the corners of the patio and remove any accumulated dust or small debris. It works really well to make the area very usable with 5-minutes of prep. The barbecue grill has a full length cover and we damp wipe any prep or eating surfaces for dust and pollen before use. As it is, the grill cover is annoying to have to store out of sight while entertaining, if it’s just us grilling out we toss it on a chair. If we had covers on the all the furniture, we wouldn’t use the area near as much as we do now which is on nice weekend mornings for breakfast and weeknight dinner etc. The more we use out outdoor living space, the smaller the effort to get it ready for use. Ample lighting, (if your seasons demand it) a propane space heater, a ready tray with a weighted napkin holder and drink coasters etc, cute fly covers from World Market etc has helped with the ease of just going outside to eat or drink wine or coffee etc. on a whim.

If your furniture fabric is Sunbrella it should also dry fairly quickly after a rain. I’ve been very impressed with how well our sunbrella upholstery has held up in the TX heat and this year in particular, with the formidable amounts of rain we had. The scotch guard should work well to help with the water beading. And agreed in the deep clean, we also do this several times a year and it helps keep the area fresh and inviting.

[niccig]

Thanks Zukini for the advice. We want to use the backyard and not have to do a ton of work each time to set it up. I do think being out there more often will help. I’d much rather give the table etc a quick wipe down every few days as we use them. Plus I’ll see what needs to be done. We rarely used our backyard so I wouldn’t see how dirty the furniture had gotten.

The bbq cover is an issue. DH forgets to put it back on after the bbq has cooled and it would be several days or longer before it got covered. I know the furniture will be the same. So I’d rather find a way to be out there and keep things clean. We can put the covers on for rainy days.

The new couch is sunbrella fabric. The umbrellas aren’t, but we plan to replace those. The throw cushions we already have aren’t either but I’ll use the scotch-guard protector and expect to replace those as they get worn out.

Good idea to have some outside serving trays etc ready to go. I’ve got some things I can put together, so we can just grab them and go outside.


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