For a number of reasons, the vast majority of individuals fail to clean their outdoor screening as often as they should. To be sure, outdoor screening is the home’s equivalent of toenails—it looks better when regularly tended to, and it provides peace of mind when regularly tended to, but nevertheless, most people don’t tend to it like they tend to, say, vacuuming the floors.
The following tips are designed to help render the process of cleaning outdoor screening as pleasant, stress free, and enjoyable as possible. In the long run, these tips will make it easier to clean outdoor screening once every couple of months—not once in a blue moon.
Let’s take a look!
1. Check the Forecast
It’s a lot pleasanter to clean outdoor screening when the weather is warm and sunny than it is to do so when it’s rainy, cold, or otherwise uncomfortable outside. With this in mind, you’d be wise to check the forecast before you set a date and time for making your screening look like new.
And don’t be afraid to delay a cleaning if it seems as though the weather will be inclement. There’s always time to clean outdoor screening, and you should be covered for at least a couple months after doing so.
2. Use the Hose
Instead of fumbling around your indoor sink in order to clean your outdoor screening (after removing this screening from the windows and/or doors, that is), do yourself a favor and put your outdoor hose to use. After applying some soap and gently scrubbing, you can rinse your screening in a matter of minutes with the hose. Hoses are ideal for the process, as their variable-strength spray modes can easily be aimed at outdoor screening’s hard-to-reach edges and corners.
3. Don’t be a Perfectionist
Outdoor screening is just that—outdoor—and Mother Nature always finds a way to dirty things that’re left outside. As such, you shouldn’t stress yourself out about cleaning every inch of your outdoor screening. So long as it looks good when you’re cleaning it, there’s a great chance that it’ll look tremendous when it’s reinstalled.
To bring things back to the toenail reference, you’ll always have another chance to clean your outdoor screening, so why get worked up?
4. Dry Thoroughly
The longer you let your outdoor screening dry in the sun, the better. Trapped moisture can create a multitude of problems for the screening itself and windows (mold, mildew, etc.), and it’s therefore recommended that your outdoor screening be left in the sun for 15 or so minutes before being reinstalled. Because pavement (and other dark-colored surfaces) reflect sunlight and become hot, the driveway is an outstanding place to let your screening dry.
5. Get the Whole Family Involved
Outdoor screen cleaning isn’t as strenuous as yardwork, nor is it as involved as many other home-maintenance activities are. Accordingly, it makes for an excellent opportunity to spend time with the whole family. Assign everyone a job—scrubber, rinser, drier, etc.—and make a picnic lunch. What would have been a day of work will then become a day of fun!
6. Clean the Windows, Too
Last but most certainly not least, you should also clean your windows when making your outdoor screening look like new. Windows can always be cleaned inside the house, but the outdoor sides are a bit more difficult to get to. Why waste extra time reaching the outer sides of windows, prepping cleaning supplies, and working, when you can take care of both concerns (windows and screens) simultaneously?
Moreover, cleaning windows is simple thanks to today’s pre-mixed formulas, which help glass surfaces to sparkle in no time at all.
These tips are sure to help make your outdoor screening look great, and the best part of all is that the cleaning process doesn’t have to be an exercise in endurance. With a bit of initiative and an adherence to these suggestions, you can complete the work in a surprisingly small amount of time. Your screens—and your home—will be better for it.
Thanks for reading, and here’s to clean outdoor screens!
