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.
LILLIAN'S CUPBOARD 
This works wonderfully! And so easy, my grandmother could do this job. The pictures could be my before & after as well. Thanks so much
Thank you so much for your comment. I’m glad it worked out well for you. Lillian
Thank you so much for this tip. We are in the process of cleaning all chairs that we had given up on. Painting them would be to expensive and time consuming as would be making covers, so I had just about given up. What a miracle. I will be visiting your site again soon but now back out to the chairs. You have given us and the chairs a new lease on life as they say.
Thank you for taking time out to comment on this post. I just did my 5 chairs and a table again last week. I hate to throw something out that is otherwise in good shape. Lillian
We found that a pressure washer works pretty well too. 8 years of service from a set of resin furniture is absolutely wonderful – most of ours get broken or banged up way before then.
Thank you so much for the idea , I was using bathroom cleaner scrub free which did not work, can’t wait to try the bleach:)) Mrs Baker Pgh Pa
I use this method every year and I hope it works as well for you as it has for me. Lillian
Thanks for the tips, I’m headed out to try this!
An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a friend who has been doing a little homework on this. And he in fact ordered me lunch because I found it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending some time to discuss this matter here on your blog.
Thank you for your comment – so glad you got a free lunch out of this. This method has worked well for me in cleaning white resin. Lillian
I used a power washer a couple years ago and it worked okay. I tried today, spent over half hour on one chair and it still didn’t look very good. My wife suggested I look on the internet and I found several suggestions, none of which worked. Then I was lucky enough to come upon your solution. Worked GREAT! Thanks, saved me lots of time and the chairs look like new!
-Joe
Thank you so much for letting me know. I’m still using this procedure on the same old chairs and they look fine. Lillian
Hi Lillian,
I enjoy reading the comments about the chairs so much because they remind me of how amazed I was when I tried it myself. We’re still using the same chairs and I thank you once again. Ellie Cabral
By the way, Happy 80th birthday…My husband’s 80th is September 7th. Keep up the good work.
I love finding a way to use something for a few more years. And happy 80th birthday to your husband. I wish the best for both of you. Lillian
I’ve always wondered what would work, Fantastic doesn’t quite cut it.
Hi Lillian, It must please you to know how many people you have helped with this one piece of advice. I love that I have been able to use my furniture for so many years after I had just about given up and thrown it out. Keep up the good work. Ellie
Thank you so much for writing. I agree that it’s nice to think that quite a few pieces of patio furniture have been saved – I’m ready to clean mine again if it doesn’t snow again this weekend. Lillian
Hi Lillian, Thank you so much for your advice. My chairs were looking really bad, and the bleach did any amazing job.
Thanks so much for letting me know. I have to get out and do mine once again for the year. Lillian
I have had resin chairs for years and could never find anything to get them clean. The past couple of years I have just left them stacked in a corner because they were just too filthy looking to sit on–even after scrubbing. Today I was determined to find something on the Internet to help me and I came across your blog. I “painted” the bleach on my chairs and couldn’t get over how quickly it began to work! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know. It’s been several years since that post and I’m still cleaning and using the same furniture. Lillian
Cleaning isn’t the problem for me, after cleaning the chairs have a white powdery residue that comes off onto clothing. Can anyone help me get rid of this white stuff. Thanks
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!! Earlier this week I went in to Ace Hardware and the owner was going to give me 20% of 4 white resin chairs. I think they had been there for awhile because they were also begin to change color. Today I tried the bleach and it worked perfectly!
This is our third year of cleaning our chairs with the bleach and they really only needed a touch up in most cases. I still tell everyone about the “miracle” you shared with us that still amazes me when I think of how bad they were when we first tried this method. I love reading the new posts and it makes me smile remembering how excited we were the first time we tried it.
Thanks again for sharing. Ellie
Thank you so much for writing. I’m also still using the same table/chairs set from 5 years ago and happy to be able to get so much more use from it. Lillian
I just tried this on 5 of my chairs. They were all like your before ones. WOW what a difference–like new again. They are going to be used at a wedding next week. Now I don’t feel too bad to lend them out.
Thank you for letting me know this worked well for you. I’m still using the set that was in the photos on my post. Lillian
I am a chemist and any solution that contains a halogen (chlorine, fluorine, bromine) in order bleach, toothpaste and the original chair no longer has any brominated plasticizer in the polymer because DPBE’s (dibromoethers, the name is acturally longer, I spared you there. The original chair once has a bromo compound which kept it white as well as another plasticizer to keep it shiny. A polymer, the chair is just like a sponge with spaces on a molecular level. Plasticizers just soak into the chair polymer. (I did research for Volkswagen in Wolfsburg Central lab, Germany on polymers) Yes, most halogen compounds, especially bleach in full strength will leave a powdery surface. Bleach appears to be a trade off solution (pun). The surface is powdery because it not only deals with the UV damage and algae (not all algae are green) but it also reacts with the polymer, not good. While it is a fantastic whitener for white plastic resin polymer like outdoor chairs, most of the time it makes the surface powdery and the complaints about this above are valid for those with very dirty chairs who exposed the plastic to the bleach for longer periods of time. The question was “what can we do not.” The answer is carnuba wax. The best car wax on the market, which has been around since I was a teen and I am now 57 is Mothers Car Wax and Cleaner. The buffing of the wax on the chair surface will not only make the surface shinier and more resistant to water damage but will also whiten some more. Check the buffing cloth that you use. Some of these darkening compounds are non polar like the wax and therefore soluble in the wax and come off on the rag. The rag turns black because of this. This wax also has UV protectant as especially red cars loose their original color and turn lighter and more powdery and this is the intended use for the wax. My wife says that Goo Gone works really well to whiten our chairs although I now do all that work and would like to see it for myself. The knock off brands, I have found do not work, only the real Goo Gone. The label on the back shows whitening outdoor plastic chairs as its third purpose. Only one downside to the wax; the chair MAY become slippery. Buff out the excess and use only enough wax to deal with the powder left by the bleach. I do not use bleach any longer because it shortens the life of the chair polymer being very harsh as any halogen would. If you are going to use bleach I would find the strength diluted with water which will still kill bacteria and algae and just wait longer. Exposure to the direct sun will degas away the chlorine in the bleach, it does not help it deters. People who disagree please realize that you did an experiment only one time, which is not scientific experimentally, meaning it only proves that what one thing you did gave results that you saw and that is it. You can’t say anything more. I hope you all receive this in love, the type that is taught in Corinthians 1st chapter.
Replying in love (same type as it was given in) I believe we have been very fortunate because we have done our chairs three years in a row and have not had a problem with white powder. This year most chairs required a quick touch up. We do one chair at a time and basically just apply the bleach and rinse it off. I will keep your reference to the canuba wax just in case i do eventually have more of a problem. Thanks for the advice. Ellie Cabral
The white powder presence of not could be related to the PBDE plasticizer being in the chair or not. The RoHS, removal of hazardous substance act only in the U.S. has the E.P.A. in action starting 2002 to full speed in 2011. If the chair is made in China it is not necessarily a requirement to remove it. But I know Chinese chemists who are learning from us, U.S.(pun). I am continuing to experiment myself with our 5 pieces of outdoor white plastic chairs and lounges myself. The reason I ended up here. I will keep you posted.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us! I’m gonna try the wax! keep on punning!
This is now the 4th year of using the bleach and we only had to do a quick touch up again. Imagine these chairs were so bad we were ready to throw them away four years ago and they are perfectly fine after all that time.
Thanks again for this great method. Ellie Cabral
Sorry, that should read above “what can we do NOW” or what do we do now that the powder comes off on our clothes and leaves the chair with a flat, non shiny appearance. Forgive me, I type very fast. I surely hope I am able to help.
Sorry again for my being in a hurry. That is “white powder presence OR not could…..”
Briefly but important: I have heard and agree that anything which will put scratches in the surface of the plastic will create a much better environment for the growth of algae, mold, etc. Please avoid the green side of dishwashing sponges but, I know, I have a difficult time avoiding doing this myself. Just to give you and idea: each chair has about 11 different types of plasticizer soaked into the polymer. And we all once thought it was just “plastic.”
Art movements in France were reflected in the furnishings as well, and the
chaise longue was a popular piece in the Rococo period.
Outdoor furniture is now useable in wood, metal, plastic or other
blended material. Before you pack things too much beach holiday
in the summer, just spend a few summer afternoons on your patio with a glass
of cold lemonade.
It’s awesome for me to have a web site, which is
beneficial in support of my experience. thanks
admin
Hi I am glad of the new tip for resin garden furniture I was looking to revive them nowI know how
Just to let you know our chairs are still doing fine with most of them needing just a touch up cleaning. I’m sure Maureen will get many more years use from her chairs as well. Enjoy the summer…I think this year the only thing white that we are all looking forward to are our chairs. Thanks for the update.
Ellie
I just finished cleaning about 20 chairs last night. These chairs are probably at least 10 years old. I can’t remember last year’s cleaning solution, so I found the bleach idea. I started with an old bristle brush. The chlorine literally wore away about 2 inches of bristle after just doing the bottoms of the chair legs. Thankful I was wearing gloves! Switched to a sponge which was faster. Yes, my chairs have the powdery issue. Thanks for the waxing idea. Maybe when I have more time I’ll try it. In the meantime I’ll go power wash the chairs before sitting in them.
I have been doing this for years as bleach turns everything white … Do Geans.. tie dye anything… When my cups get stained ,,, watch the magic..
I only did this search this morning. I planned to stain the deck so while picking up the stain I spotted some wire wool and bleach. Total cost £3.25! I still have half a bottle of bleach left and only needed 3 balls of wire wool. I did 7 chairs that I had previously pressured wash to no avail. They were heading for the tidy tip after 20 yrs of limited use, because they were shameful!! Now they are like new. Taking the advice of Bill I washed them with washing up liquid after and that appears to have resolved the powder. I do have some car wax too so if it doesn’t work I’ll use that too. Oh and now I’m using it on my door step to get rid of deck stain!! All 7 chairs took me just under 30 mins. Thanks Lillian this was an absolute success!