This post may contain affiliate links. Thank you for your support.
Faux blooms and greenery can bring so much life to your home, and they’re virtually maintenance-free, but they do get a little dusty after a while. Here’s how to clean artificial flowers, greenery, and plants.
Some people are team “real plants and greenery,” and some people are team faux. Some people, like me, like to use a mix of both to get the benefits of easy-care, no-maintenance beauty, with the occasional real floral arrangement and houseplant to care for. The only challenge with artificial greenery is that it can get pretty dusty and dirty after a while. Humidity in the air can cause grime to sink into all the little nooks and crevices of artificial plants, and you may also have things like lint and pet fur that get stuck on the leaves and blooms. If you’ve ever tried to wipe your faux foliage clean with a damp cloth, you know that isn’t an ideal solution, as it can cause dust to stick even more, and the rough texture of the plants doesn’t wipe clean easily. Thankfully, there’s an easy, clever solution for how to clean artificial flowers that you may not have thought of.
Spring cleaning tips with homemade cleaners: DIY Scented Cleaning Vinegar
Cleaning Artificial Flowers and Plants
If you have false blooms and foliage in your home, eventually, you’re going to need to clean them. This is particularly a problem if you like to buy high-quality stems in the hopes that they’ll last you for years and bring beauty to your home that will stand the test of time. This is a great way to practice sustainable, slow decorating in your home, you’ll just have to give your plants a little bit of a refresh every once in a while.
This trick to clean faux flowers and greenery might sound a little silly at first, but it really does get the job done.
First, find a plastic bag that’s big enough to fit whatever type of artificial greenery you’ll be cleaning. This may be a large freezer-style zip lock bag for smaller items, or a large black garbage bag for bigger faux plants.
Next, pour some salt into the bag. Use about 1/2 cup for smaller pieces, and about one cup for larger ones. You can use regular table salt or coarse salt, and both should do the job quite nicely.
Add your greenery to the bag and close it up, either by sliding the zipper seal shut or simply holding it tightly shut with your hand.
Shake the greenery in the bag vigorously, turning it over upside down and really allowing the salt to come in contact with all the surfaces of the flowers and leaves. Continue shaking for about a minute or two.
Remove the greenery from the bag and gently shake it to allow any trapped salt to be released from the foliage, and let it fall back into the bag as much as possible.
Your greenery will be free of dust, lint, and hair and ready to be displayed in a vase once again.
More easy green cleaning and housekeeping ideas: The Curtains in the Dryer Trick
Tips, Suggestions, and Notes
I recommend only cleaning one potted plant or one or two stems at a time. This way, you get the most contact and the most dusting power out of this method. If you try adding all your greenery to one bag all at once, you may not find this solution to be very effective for you.
If the weather is warm, I suggest working outside to avoid accidental spillage of salt all over your house. This will allow you to avoid having to vacuum up any salt that escapes and allow you to do a better job of shaking out the excess salt after the cleaning process.
Although this is a great method to allow you to avoid messing with detergents and cleaners, if you’d like to give each leaf an extra little rinse with a damp sponge after you’ve done the salt method, you absolutely can. Dry and polish with a lint-free cloth, such as a microfiber towel, afterward, and avoid using paper towels as they’ll just tear and cause you to have all kinds of white debris stuck in your leaves.
If you’d like an extra little bit of fragrance in your home, you can add a scent to the salt before shaking it by adding a few drops of orange, lemon, or lavender essential oil.
I hope this comes in handy the next time you notice your faux flowers are looking a little dusty and grimy!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.