Getting Ready for Fall: Storing Outdoor Cushions

 Just this week we'll be doing our practical chores in order to have an easy transition into Fall.You might have seen our first installment of getting ready for fall or our second post Fall towels near entrances for dirty little paws.
For our next installment, we'll be storing our deck cushions, we've had a big rain storm recently and it became clear that we would have to store them a little before schedule.
We simply store them in our attic, but it's what we do before we store them, that keeps them looking new year after year.

Two words, CLEAN & DRY.
First make sure they are clean and dry before you store them. You should take a peek at the washing instructions label, but if your cushions are like ours they don't have a washing instructions label.
So what we do is:
1)Take a bucket of hot water and some soap, we use Dr. Brommers pure castile soap, we don't measure how much just a couple of squirts to a liter of water.

 2)Take a hard bristle brush and scrub the cushions, until they are clean. Let sit for 10 minutes.
 3)Then simply hose off the soap, making sure that all the soap is gone (otherwise you'll end up with soapy residue when they dry).
We wait for a sunny day to clean our outdoor furniture, so that the cushions can dry out completely in the sun.
 I've never tried to wash them in the washing machine, I didn't want to risk shrinking them. But that's  an option too :) Always check your labels!

The next CLEAN & DRY part is to STORE them somewhere Clean and Dry. We are lucky to have an attic space, it's very clean and very dry.  Dry is probably the key word, because you could always clean them later but if you put them away wet, you'll get mildew and well. . . . .  mildew is bad.

So one item on my check list is complete, on to the next.