Cleaning up the lawn furniture

My Darling Home Ec Divas,

I’m all set for Memorial Day weekend. I have family and friends coming over for a barbecue. The menu’s set, the food is bought, the house is clean (well, it’s getting there), I’m ready. Well, except for one thing. My lawn furniture is ewww and funk. Seriously, I don’t know what happens over the winter to make it so nasty, but it is. Can you help?

Love,

The Jamesetta Brown Of Lawn Furniture

Ivy says:

There’s something inherently hilarious about the words “lawn furniture.” I often imagine what people from way back in history would think of we modern people, and I think they’d probably fall down laughing at the idea of having furniture for your lawn. Heck, if you go far enough back, they’d probably roll with laughter just at the idea of a lawn.

That said, let’s get your lawn furniture clean. Now, you all may have noticed I rarely suggest cleaning things with bleach. That’s because I hate bleach. I hate how it smells, I hate how I always end up with little bleachy spots on things, I hate that it kills plants if you’re not careful. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. (Whoo! such strong feelings about a household cleaner!)

Even though I hate bleach, I realize it has its uses. This is one of them. There’s nothing like a good scrub with some bleach water to get that funky mold, mildew and whatever other funk is on your lawn furniture. Make up a bucket with 1 part bleach to 10 parts water and use a scrub brush to scrub your lawn furniture.

Do not do this on your actual lawn. Do this on your driveway. If you use a hose to hose off the furniture after scrubbing, make sure you’re not letting the water run onto the sides of your lawn, unless you want dead grass. I always try to make sure it’s heading out onto the curb where it will eventually run into the sewer. And hey, sanitized curbs!

Have fun at your barbecue!