My Outdoor Cushions Were Filthy — This Fix Transformed Them in Just 5 Minutes

As the weather finally warms up, I’ve set out to spruce up my outdoor space. I’ve been gardening every spare moment I get, trying to create a lush oasis where my family can enjoy the beautiful East Tennessee spring and summer. I realized, though, that if I want to spend time amongst the flowers, ferns, and twinkle lights, there’s one chore I can’t keep putting off: cleaning the patio cushions.

I usually just pressure wash everything before our first spring get-together, but this year I decided to try to find the single best way to clean my outdoor cushions, which have grown stained and discolored. I wanted to know if there was a quick, low-effort method that could work to rid the cushions of dirt and mildew I could return to time and time again — and that’s exactly what I found.

I decided to try three different methods to clean my patio cushions.

• Scrubbing them with dish soap and water.
• Using Simple Green outdoor cleaner and a pressure washer.
• Using a solution of borax and dish soap followed by steaming the cushions.

To test each method, I grabbed three of the dirtiest cushions from one patio set we purchased about six years ago. The cushions are almost always left out without coverings on our back porch. They’ve stood up remarkably well, but it’s been a year since they were last cleaned and they all had a coating of mud from dog paws, some mildew, and a good deal of dirt. I shook off all the loose dirt and tested each method on a separate cushion of the same size. I set them out to dry in the sun for 24 hours after cleaning them. 

The ratings: I used a rating scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest score and 5 being the highest. I factored in not only the overall effectiveness of each method, but also its relative ease and convenience. I also considered how long each method took. 

Results: 1/5

Method: I mixed a tablespoon of borax, a squirt of dish soap, and about 2 cups of water in a spray bottle. I sprayed the solution onto my cushion, let it soak in for a few minutes, and then cleaned it with my portable Karcher power steamer. I used a brush attachment, scrubbing as I steamed. Then, I rinsed it off and set out the cushion to dry in the sun. 

How it went: Ultimately, this method was a bit tedious. Mixing the Borax and dish soap solution in the spray bottle wasn’t too much work, but it was another step (compared to the method below), and it took a lot of spraying to make sure the cushion was sufficiently covered. Steaming with the brush attachment worked well to loosen dirt, but it seemed like an unnecessary step for cleaning patio cushions. Even with all the effort, the cushion got cleaner, but wasn’t spotless. There was still visible dirt and a few cleaner stripes where I’m assuming I held the steamer for longer. I usually keep Borax on hand as my favorite all-natural laundry booster, so it’s convenient if you already have it, but don’t go out of your way to buy it for this method.

Results: 3/5

Method: This straightforward trick appears to be the internet’s go-to method, and it’s once I’ve been using for years. I grabbed a bucket, filled it with a gallon of warm water, and mixed in a quarter cup of dish soap. I used a scrub brush to put the solution on the cushion and scrubbed it into the material, paying special attention to the seams, where extra grime collects. Once I was done scrubbing, I dumped a bucketful of clean water over the cushion to rinse the soap out, then set it out to dry in the sun. 

How it went: I love that this method doesn’t require any setup or special equipment — and it still works decently well. The cushion I used this method on came out much cleaner than it was before. The dish soap dissolved much of the dirt, and it rinsed away quickly and easily. The main issue with this method is how much time and elbow grease it takes. If you only have a few cushions to clean, it’s definitely doable. However, we have a couch and two chairs with a total of 10 cushions, and the thought of scrubbing and rinsing 20 large, stained cushion sides is way more effort than I’d want to put into this task. 

Results: 5/5 

Method: This method is an Apartment Therapy favorite: I used Simple Green Oxy Solve Total Outdoor Cleaner Concentrate and a pressure washer (the Ryobi 1800 PSI Corded Pressure Washer, which is compact and so easy to use). I used the included pressure washer attachment for cleaning concentrate and filled it with Simple Green, sprayed it to cover the cushion, and let it sit for about five minutes, as directed on the packaging. I put the medium force nozzle on and sprayed the cushion with a loose back-and-forth motion, which not only cleaned the cushion’s staining almost entirely, but also rinsed away the cleaning solution in the same step. As with the other methods, I then set the cushion out to dry in the sun. 

How it went: This method wins hands-down for how effective it is and how fast it makes cleaning a bunch of outdoor cushions. Yes, there’s a little bit of setup with the pressure washer, but it makes applying the cleaning concentrate take mere seconds. The force of the water penetrates deep into the texture of the fabric, removing even ground-in dirt in seconds. On top of all this time-saving, not having to rinse in a separate step saves even more time. 

This method is a perfect use if you already have a pressure washer (or if you’ve been thinking about getting one, consider this your sign to do it!). The Simple Green outdoor cleaner was an additional purchase, but because it’s so highly concentrated the $23.99 gallon makes up to 21 gallons of cleaner you can use on almost any outdoor surface, making it well-worth the price in my book. Plus, it’s environmentally safe and you can use it around vegetation, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning up after you’ve cleaned.

After testing these three methods, I’m convinced: A pressure washer with an outdoor cleaning concentrate is the best way to clean patio cushions, and it’s the only method I’ll be using from now on. As soon as I finished my testing, I continued with this method on the rest of my patio cushions to turn my porch into the perfect outdoor oasis in minutes. It was so fast and effective that I’ll probably move onto the furniture and deck itself next!

The dish soap and scrub brush method is solid and requires nothing special, which is what I’d recommend for a quick cleaning, to clean only a cushion or two, or for someone who doesn’t have a pressure washer. It works great, but it’s time-consuming and more labor-intensive than the other methods. As far as the Borax, dish soap, and steamer method goes, if you try it, I hope you have more success than I did — because it just didn’t feel like the juice was worth the squeeze.