I am going to show you exactly how to clean and soften dried paint brushes. This is how I have been cleaning my brushes for years and they still look great. I have rinsed out my paint brushes and placed them in a plastic bag and left them for a week. The paint came off after using this method.
If the paint is so dry that the brush is rock hard, this method may not work. You may have to throw the brush away. This method works when you have kept the brush in a plastic bag or in the refrigerator for some time.
I have had some of my paint brushes for over 10 years and I still feel like they are in great condition. It is easy to forget about properly washing your wet brushes when you are exhausted from painting all day. It happens.
There are two items that I always use to get my brushes clean and soft.
Supplies
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First an Important Tip
I am sure everyone knows the tip where you store your wet paint brushes in a plastic bag and place them in the refrigerator overnight until you are finished with your project. Then you wash the paint out of the brushes. Well, I have forgotten about my wet paint brushes and left them in the refrigerator for over a week. I used this method and they still came out clean and soft. I will show you the pictures of those brushes at the bottom of the post.
- Fill a cup with Murphy oil soap.
- Soak the brush overnight.
- Remove the paint brush from the cup of Murphy oil soap. Do not rinse the brush yet.
- Take a plastic comb and comb the paint out of the brush.
- Keep combing the paint out. It should easily comb out. I usually do the same thing with the brush handle.
- After the paint is combed out of the brush, wash the brush.
- I use a small amount of dawn dish soap and I wash the brush under hot running water.
Keep combing the paint out. It should easily comb out. I usually do the same thing with the brush handle. 
Look how clean and soft the paint brushes are now!
How I cleaned the brushes that I forgot about for a week
I rinsed the paint brush and placed them in a sealed plastic bag.
I forgot about the rinsed brushes for over a week.
The brushes sat overnight in the Murphy Oil Soap.
I have had this small craft brush for over 15 years and I use it if I need to get in a tight space.
This is how to clean and soften dried paint brushes. Paint brushes should last you for years if you take care of them. For the record, I always throw away paint rollers after I paint with them. My husband will wash them out but I never feel like they are perfectly clean. This is just my opinion.
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