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Cleaning > Cleaning Tips > Outdoor Cleaning

Outdoor Cleaning

Maintaining the outdoor areas of your home can require a bit of planning and a healthy dose of elbow grease. Sun exposure, wet weather and cold temperatures all take their toll on your outdoor furniture and tiles and make outdoor cleaning a necessity for most homes. Not to mention the cobwebs, dirt, and grease that can find their way onto your BBQ, wooden decking or patio.

Storing outdoor furniture indoors or under cover during winter can provide protect from the weather and preserve the lifespan of each piece. Bring your setting back outside when summer comes and give it a quick clean so you’re ready to enjoy the warmer months. When cleaning outdoor furniture, wipe each piece down with warm soapy water and VIVA Xtra Tough Towels , then leave them in the sun to dry. You can also use baking soda, vinegar or lemon juice to clean outdoor pieces.

When you’re outdoor cleaning, it’s important not to forget your floor surfaces. If you have outdoor tiles that are looking grimy, pour boiling water over them to dislodge any grease or dirt, and then go over the area with a mop. Use Jiff with VIVA Xtra Tough Towels to remove any black marks. If your wooden deck or patio has grease stains on it, sprinkle baking soda onto the surface, let it sit an hour and then sweep away.

Scraping down your BBQ after each use is the best way to keep it clean, hygienic and ready to cook your snags. For any stubborn stains or charred bits, scrub with a mixture of vinegar and baking soda, then rinse. You can also try pouring a can of Coca Cola over a particularly dirty BBQ and wiping it off after ten minutes using a VIVA Xtra Tough Towels .

Top tips for outdoor

A little bit of eucalyptus oil in the wash when washing bedding or linen will help sanitise them without using chemicals.
Biro comes out by dipping the stained part of the clothing into a glass of milk.
If whites turn pink in the wash, add a cup of vinegar and rewash. This has the same effect as bleach without the environmental consequences.
If you get food or wine on your clothes, just squirt some soda water on a napkin and squash it into the stain. It should come right out.
To remove ink stains, take a clean, white cloth soaked in milk and rub the ink stain from the outer sides inward.
Mix bicarb soda, lemon juice and water to make a paste to remove bad stains on shirt underarms.
Mulberry stains on clothes and children’s hands and faces are magically removed by rubbing green mulberries over the top, squeezing the juice as you go.
Orange oil spray on white gym shoes makes them look brand new again.
Place a bit of eucalyptus oil on a VIVA Paper Towel, then rub gently on stains on fabric to watch them lift away.
Rubbing a lemon onto a stubborn stain on a white shirt and then leaving it in the sunlight for a while will remove the stain.
Sponge out perspiration stains with equal amounts vinegar and water, or full strength vinegar or lemon juice. Then launder in hot, soapy water.
To clean the base of your iron, wipe it with a VIVA Paper Towel soaked in cold tea. Stains will vanish!
To get brown stains out of white socks, soak them in salted water before washing them.
To remove blood or red wine from a white shirt, rinse immediately in cold water overnight.
To remove lipstick on clothes, sponge with metho, then dishwashing liquid, then put in the wash.
To whiten your whites, soak the fabrics in lemon juice for 15 minutes, then wash as usual.
Use eucalyptus oil in the wash with bed linen to kill bed bugs, deodorise and lift any oil from sheets, towels and clothing.
Use the inside of a banana skin to polish up black shoes, then wipe off excess with a VIVA Paper Towel. They’ll come up like new.
Use white vinegar in the rinse cycle in your machine – it makes clothes soft and cleans your machine at the same time.

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