This is my 8th year to use 5 chairs and a table which are of white resin. Year by year, they had gotten more and more discolored and mottled. I tried steel wool, various cleaners and cleansers but nothing helped without a tremendous amount of scrubbing time. I was about ready to throw out these terrible looking chairs but they were still sturdy and I wanted white which didn’t seem to be available in the stores this summer.
Then, I heard somewhere that you could use a brush to paint undiluted laundry bleach on the surface and it would clean up like magic. I didn’t have a brush but I had a long narrow sponge and poured bleach into a small bowl where I could dip the sponge and slather it onto the chair. I wore rubber gloves and worked on an outside concrete patio in the open air.
The results were amazing. As soon as I made the first swipe, I could see the crud starting to fade away. For more stubborn stains or hard to reach places, I used an SOS pad. Then I hosed everything off to a rewarding finish!
Please note that this worked well on white resin furniture – I don’t know what it would do to other colors or other surfaces. Be sure to wear protective gloves, to work outside and to work on a floor surface that won’t be damaged by drips. I also wore old clothes which had a lot of patches of bleached surface when I was finished. It’s good to have a hose nearby for thorough rinsing, too.
I cleaned 5 chairs and a small umbrella table in about an hour. I’m very happy to be able to use my furniture for another season or two.
