apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I've found that refrigerators work nicely as well- though I don't believe I have let my rollers and tray sit much longer than two days.

yep, you don't have to freeze. Just seal the air out by wrapping securely with plastic and pop in the fridge. Will last about 3-4 days.

Don't let them stay in the freezer for more than a day or so -
Frost-Free freezers will dry out the paint and make it nearly impossible to clean.
(I learned this the hard way...)

Even just with a bit of saran tightly done around you don't have to put in fridge or freezer and it's fine for a day. Unless you live in super hot climate this has worked for me and I have brush painted all the walls in my bungalows many times. It's easier than having to cover all the furniture and using a roller that splatters, as long as you're not in a huge rush.

I do it all the time. Awesome tip!

just be sure to only do that with latex paint. my cousin tried that trick with lacquer based finish. i had to air out the fridge for two days!

where was this post 5 months ago when i was a painting fiend?? oh well...next time around. good tip.

haha, i have a whole shelf in my fridge dedicated to paint brushes and film.

I'm a bit confused. I always just put brushes in a giant zip-lock bag and they are fine the next day. Rollers and trays can be put in kitchen garbage bags. What is freezing them supposed to accomplish?

I'd like to add that you can leave paint - and paintbrushes - in the paint tray when done for the day. Cover tightly with foil, they will be good as new the next day. Learned that from my NYC super - who else!

I usually just wrap everything in cling wrap. I leave the roller in the tray and wrap it all up, but brushes separately. It's always been fine for a day or so.

We've had ours in the freezer, well, for a number of days at times, and while it didn't affect the paintbrush (ours never dried out as some have mentioned), it *does* affect the taste of food -- things that are not wrapped for example, ice cubes, or not tightly wrapped, like an open box of waffles, fruit or veg, well... they may not taste quite right... so just be careful not to forget them in there...

Putting your wrapped brushes or trays in the fridge or freezer helps because those are fairly airtight environments. I've been priming and touching up several parts of my apt for weeks now and still using the same tray of paint.

I can see me leaving mine in there way too long...along with all the mystery food.

Question for the people who leave brushes and rollers out but wrapped: Does room/air temp matter? I've always put them in the fridge, but it would be so much easier to leave them out. Our temps have been in the mid-to-upper 80's lately and I still have 3 rooms that have to be painted.

I've never put my brushes or rollers ir fridge or freezer. wrapped up in plastic grocery bags, and left on top of the paint can. and frequently left (I hate to admit) for more than a few days.