If you happen to own any rattan furniture, you might wonder what the best solution is to keep the material looking good. Over time, a failure to clean the rattan can leave it looking tatty and old. However, a regular cleaning regiment could keep rattan furnishing and ornaments looking glorious for years to come. You should look to clean rattan furniture on a regular basis, with a simple clean weekly given and a more thorough clean using a damp cloth on a monthly basis.Â
How, though, can you make sure that you can give your rattan furniture a proper, consistent, and thorough clean?
Getting started
To begin with, make sure you run over any rattan furniture with a microfiber cloth and, if needed, a duster. Even a thorough vacuum cleaning should be useful, though be sure not to push too much on the material lest you snap it. If there are particularly tight areas, use an air compressor (if available) to force those pieces of air out of the crannies they find themselves.
Now, wipe down the furniture with a microfiber cloth that is slightly damp. Then, give the furniture itself plenty of time to air-dry. If you ever spill anything on it, though, avoid rubbing it too much because it can force the stain into the material itself. The same goes for any solids which are dropped; lift them up with a blunt instrument like a spoon to avoid chipping, scratching, or staining.
If anything has gotten lodged in there, a new toothbrush could be used to slowly but surely scrub the problem again. Take this very slowly and carefully, though, as you don’t want to risk damaging the rattan to a serious level.
For serious cleaning
While the above regime should be good for a weekly clean or for reacting to a spillage, you should look to clean rattan furniture once per month with a stronger solution. to start off, you are going to need a few cups of warm water & a teaspoon of washing up liquid placed into a bowl. You then will need a secondary bucket that just has some fresh water for using to rinse out your cleaning items.
With a microfiber cloth, get in about each of the little areas that make up the rattan furniture. Keep the cloth damp with the cleaning mixture and make sure you keep cleaning away. When done, use the toothbrush to get into any especially hard places to reach, and avoid excess moisture with the water – keep it damp, not wet.
When done, allow the rattan furniture to air dry over a period of time, such as a day or two, before you use it again.
For yearly cleaning, you might wish to always check for any signs of mould build-up. This can usually be found around about the legs of any rattan furniture. When spotted, you should attack these with a thorough clean with a mixture of chlorine bleach and water. As ever, be sure to do this in a ventilated place and with coverage around your hands and face.
Give it a deep, thorough clean each year and especially when the signs of mould appear, and you can keep that rattan furniture alive for so much longer. Alongside keeping them in rooms with balanced humidity and avoiding minimal movement, you can ensure that these rattan items won’t snap, crack, or split just as often, too.