As summer is winding down, you may notice you have some furniture, carpet or other soft surfaces around your house that need some love, because they’ve either been neglected or well used lately. Well, I have good news for you! I recently discovered two non-toxic brands/products for cleaning and protecting these textiles. A few weeks back, I used them to spruce up some patio furniture and took photos of the process, to share with you.
Here is a look at the chairs and table on the patio before I cleaned them. Sadly, Corey and I haven’t done much porch sitting lately, and if we do, it is usually out back…so these guys have been kind of forgotten. The pictures honestly doesn’t do justice to how filthy they were! We decided we aren’t taking them with us to the new house and were going to donate them to a younger couple, so I wanted to clean them up before passing them on!
The first products I am introducing to you are from the “Clean Safe Products Green Mitt Starter Kit.” This is a really neat system! The surface cleaner attacks the stain with the goal of loosening, dissolving and separating them from the fibers. The then the green mitt physically picks up and carries away the dirt, oil, grease, etc. from the surface. It even break down soap residue left my previous cleaners. It is green seal certified and has no volatile organic compounds (VOC’s)! It can also be used on carpet, rugs, sneakers, car upholstery, dog beds, car seats, upholstered headboards, hats and curtains; pretty much all soft surfaces.
I started by vacuuming all the areas to be cleaned. If your project is outside and the concrete isn’t too hot, I recommend you go barefoot to do some grounding while you work!
Then lightly spray the cushion you are starting with so it is damp all over and let sit for 3-5 minutes.
You could pick a few weeds while you wait 🙂
Dampen the mitt by dipping in a bowl with some of the soft surface cleaner in it and wringing it out. Massage the fabric in circles or straight lines, or both! You can use either side of the mitt. I like to start with the nubby side and then flip over and wipe with the flat side, too.
This is what my cushion looked like after the first round, so I decided to repeat the previous steps. I sprayed the cushion, rinsed out my mitt and dampened it with the soft surface cleaner. After round two, there were still some pretty visible stains, so I moved onto the spot and stain remover, as directed.
I sprayed the spot remover onto the stains and let sit for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, I rinsed out mitt and then massaged the stains with damp mitt.
Here is what the chair looked like when I was done. Still a few lighter stains… but MUCH improved. The before and after comparison below really shows the difference!
After letting the fabric dry, I moved on to the protection phase, using “ProtectME spray.”
I came across this brand as I was doing some research recently on non-toxic ways to protect all the furniture we are buying for the new house!
This process could not be much easier! You literally just spray the fabric evenly until damp all over, buff with a cloth and let it dry for 24 hours.
Then it is time to do a spill test.
After just one coat, it passed the test! Look how the water just bubbled up and stayed on top of the fabric. That was exciting to see! But if you are a sceptic, like me, you may be thinking “this is outdoor furniture that could already had some kind of waterproof coating on it.” Which is why I also want to show you the spill test from a brand new indoor chair we just purchased. It is what really made me a believer! This is also after one coat.
Reapplication is only needed every 2-3 years.
Rather than a long list of synthetic chemicals in other products with a similar goal (such as Scotch Guard), this one only has two ingredients, natural silicone dioxide and deionized water. It is water-based, odorless and has zero VOC’s! In other words, Protect Me is a safe option for you and your family. Plus, it can be used on most fabric or textile surfaces: cotton, suede, leather, synthetics, wool and silk, to name a few!
I am very pleased with how this project turned out and how simple it was to use both “Clean Safe” and “Protect Me.” I highly recommend them for your healthy home toolkit!
Corey and I are SO close to moving in to the new house; 8 days and definitely counting! The photo on the left was taken on our 16th anniversary a couple of weeks ago, when we were so excited to be getting sod put in! I had fun playing around with it in chat GPT, imagining an epic Art Deco garden party in the yard. We are praying that everything goes smoothly the new couple of weeks as we wrap up the construction, packing, get moved and start getting settled and decorating! I shared on social media recently that this season has been hard and stressful in a lot of ways, but we are also so excited and blessed! We are ready to get in and start enjoying our new home together with the pups and with friends and family. Once we get settled and I find the time, I will definitely do another blog on the finishes we chose that are our take on Art Deco!
