To get started you need a tray that is large enough to hold the paint brushes and can withstand heat.
Then, you will need to heat up a couple of cups of vinegar. Basically, you want enough vinegar to completely cover the brushes that you are cleaning.
I usually just put a few cups of vinegar in my tea pot and let it heat up.
While your vinegar is heating up lay the brushes out in the tray you are going to use.
Once you have the vinegar heated up then slowly pour the vinegar over the brushes. You want to make sure you don’t spill the vinegar and burn yourself.
Soaking The Hardened Brushes
Set a timer for 10 minutes and let the brushes soak in the hot vinegar.
After the 10 minutes is up you will want to use an old toothbrush or scrubber to remove some of the paint.
Gently take the scrubber over the paint brush bristles. Make sure you keep in the one direction of the bristles so you don’t bend or break them.
Once you have gone over the bristles a few times then rinse the brush and place it back in the hot vinegar water.
Set the timer for another 10 minutes to let the paint brush soak.
After 10 minutes you can once again gently scrub in one direction with the bristles to remove any more loose paint.
Rinse the brush well with warm water and let the paint brush dry.
You can see below my brush after it was cleaned. It looks way better!
Repeat if Necessary
If your brush bristles still have a good deal of paint left in them you can repeat the process again.
Soak the brushes for 10 minutes in the hot vinegar, scrub them, and then let them soak for another 10 minutes.
The second time will really help remove the hardened paint from the brush and leave it looking like new again.
I am amazed at the difference this makes in the paint brushes. Not only do they look better without all the paint, but they are so soft and easy to use.
It makes the job of painting so much easier when you have a clean and flexible brush to use.
Next time you are ready to toss those hardened paint brushes try out this simple tip on how to clean hardened paint brushes so they look like new!
