Simple Tip for Quickly Cleaning Vinyl Fences (and Outdoor Furniture)

Hey hey! Summer is here and we’re in MASSIVE outdoor cleaning mode! Next week I’m sharing our new deck makeover (eeek! can’t wait!), but today I wanted to let you in on a little secret I discovered. You see, I had been dreading cleaning our vinyl fence. Occasionally I’ve hosed it down but the mildew and dirt started to build up and I envisioned hours of elbow grease to scrub it off. After 4 years of ignoring it, I finally got into my scrubby clothes and pulled out every cleaning product I had to tackle this cleaning feat. Turns out I only needed two things to easily handle this job (um, one of them is water), and the dirt and mildew came right off!

The first thing we did was spray the entire fence with the hose to get off the loose dirt. Believe it or not, this is after we sprayed it with a hose– YUCK.

See why I was dreading this? I don’t know the exact length, but we have two entire fences like this (and a good 4 years of dirt). Take another peek at the grossness..

I thought I’d need to use some heavy duty chemical cleaners (which I loathe with a passion), but on a whim decided to give the fence a swipe with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser first. And NO, this is not a sponsored post– I would have disclosed that already if it was. 🙂 Swipe it I did, and I was amazed when the dirt and algae (or whatever that green stuff is clinging to the side) wiped right off.

Soon, my daughter was helping too. As she cleaned, she couldn’t stop saying how AMAZED she was with the MAGIC ERASER! I had to listen to a steady steam of “WOW THIS MAGIC ERASER IS AMAZING, MOMMY! I LOVE Magic Erasers! Look at it CLEAN! Mr. Clean made these?! That guy is amazing!”

When the eraser got dirty, a quick spray with the hose cleaned it right off. And then a certain someone got me good on the backside with the hose and I may bave yelped. But that’s the fun in doing this on an 85 degree day, right? After we wiped down a section, we’d spray it to get off the loose grime otherwise it dries back onto the fence.

Less than half an hour of spraying, wiping, and spraying again and the fence seriously looks good as new. Plus we were happily soaked and ready to tackle the one on the other side of the house.

We tried this on our outdoor plastic toys and furniture with the same result. One swipe, good as new! The entire fence took about 4 Magic Erasers, and some were still good enough to use on the toys and furniture afterwards. Isn’t that so easy? NO chemicals, NO scrubbing, NO accidentally bleached clothing or need to keep the kids away while you work.