Arranging tall sticks of dried flowers in tall vases is among the latest trends in home décor. But as attractive as the idea may seem and no matter how much it adds to the beauty of your room, it will eventually collect dust and then it will be a headache to clean them. You might feel inclined to throw them away but most of them are expensive and truly there is no need to throw anything just because it is a little dusty.If they are dried flowers definitely there is no way you should be washing them in water. Even if they are silk or flowers of any other fabric, it is still advisable not to wash them in soap and water. If you wash them with soap:
- The color of the fabric might fade
- Holes may appear on the fabric if the detergent is too strong
- If there are mixed colors of flowers or petals of flowers have darker cores and faded edges, color from the core may bleed out to the edges, thus giving a disgusting color to your once beautiful flowers.
- Washing decorative flowers with water means water gets on to the glue which is essential for holding different parts of the flower together and weakens it thus making the flower fall apart.
- Using only water to wash the flowers is also going to prove ineffective as the water is going to push the dirt further into the fabric.
The best way to clean dry flowers is to keep them clean from the very beginning and not letting much dust to settle in them at a time.
- One of the best ways to clean dry flowers is putting half a cup of salt in a paper bag, putting the flowers inside the bag and shaking the bag. The salt granules act as a scrub to remove the dust. The same process can be followed using sand or rice grains in place of salt. This method is useful for flowers or plants with intricate designs or tight cluster of leaves.
- You can use Q tips, pipe cleaners or artist paint brushes to remove the dust. But this will be a process requiring patience.
- Using a vacuum cleaner to clean the flowers is not at all a good idea as it will suck the petals right off the stem. But you can use in a reverse mood to blow off the dust. Better still you can use a hair dryer at medium heat to blow off the dust.
- If the flowers are of water resistant material such as plastic you can dip them in water without a second thought. Dip them, swish them around and leave them to dry off. But take care that the water is not flowing too hard. Also do not dip for too long as this will wash off the glue.
- When dusting, try to work out of doors or in a well ventilated place so that the dust does not settle back down again. Also try to work on dry days as high humidity will not help the exercise.
- Special mini vacuum cleaners or can of compressed air that are designed to help cleaning keyboards can also be used for the purpose.