• Home
  • DIY
  • Organizing/Cleaning
  • Room Makeovers
  • Recipes
  • Crafts
  • About Me
  • Contact Me

Savvy Apron

May 5, 2022 By Sherry

How to Clean and Soften Dried Paint Brushes

Yum

Filed Under: Crafts, DIY

Sharing is caring!

33 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

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.

how to clean and soften paint brushes

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

supplies

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. You can view full disclosure policy here.

Murphy Oil Soap

Comb

First an Important Tip

wet paint brush in refrigerator

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.

  1. Fill a cup with Murphy oil soap.
  2. Soak the brush overnight.          soak your wet brush
  3. Remove the paint brush from the cup of Murphy oil soap. Do not rinse the brush yet.  how to clean and soften paint brushes
  4. Take a plastic comb and comb the paint out of the brush.      comb out the paint
  5. paint brushKeep combing the paint out. It should easily comb out. I usually do the same thing with the brush handle. clean the brush
  6. After the paint is combed out of the brush, wash the brush.
  7. I use a small amount of dawn dish soap and I wash the brush under hot running water.clean and soften paint brushes

Look how clean and soft the paint brushes are now!

How I cleaned the brushes that I forgot about for a week

paint brush

I rinsed the paint brush and placed them in a sealed plastic bag.

how to clean and soften paint brushes

I forgot about the rinsed brushes for over a week.

murphy oil soap

The brushes sat overnight in the Murphy Oil Soap.

paint

I have had this small craft brush for over 15 years and I use it if I need to get in a tight space.

craft paint brush

paint brush

wash brush

clean paint brushes

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.

You may also like

How to Remove Paint From Hardware

how to remove paint from hardware

« Side Door Entrance Decorating-ORC Week Four
Lake House Outdoor Space-ORC-Week 5 »
logo
Food Advertisements by

Sign Up for Email

I'm Sherry! I believe that you can have nice things without going in debt. I will show you my DIY projects, DIY home renovations, tips and recipes.

Hi! I am Sherry and I live in Alabama. Thanks for visiting my blog. I love beautiful things but I am passionate about decorating my home without going in debt. It is amazing how creative you can be when you are on a budget. My home is decorated with diy projects, thrift store finds, and some items purchased new. I hope that you find something you to create for your home.

logo

Food Advertisements by

Copyright © 2023 · - Disclosure Policy - Privacy Policy - Log in

33 shares