Clean artificial silk flowers with salt

978933_cooking_salt_2Silk flowers definitely outlast real ones, but they can get dusty and dirty after a time – especially in high pollution areas where the “fresh” air from open windows contains little black microparticles of crud. There are a number of ways to clean them – most people try to dust them with a feather duster, or use a vacuum with attachments to gently suck off the dust. Those methods will do some good, but they won’t get to the grime that’s settled into hard-to-reach areas. The plants may look better after a dusting, but they won’t get back the sheen they had when you first brought them home.

Bag and salt

There’s a simple method to cleaning silk flower arrangements that really works:

  1. Pour a little salt into a paper grocery bag.
  2. Put the flowers in the bag.
  3. Close the bag and shake vigorously. The salt gets into crevices and places other methods don’t reach and absorbs the dirt and grime.
  4. Take the flowers out and see if they look as near-real as you remember. If not, put them back in and shake a while longer.

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