How to Take Keep Paint Rollers in Good Shape for Years

Painting with a roller is usually a lot less time and work. Many are under the impression that cleaning the rollers would be a hassle, and they are often chucked. When a new painting project begins, new rollers are bought. However, it is possible to clean them quite simply, and save them for years!

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. Clean your paint rollers thoroughly. Using a roller is the easy part. Cleaning it is a little bit more work. The first secret to making rollers last is to clean them really well. For oil based paint, you need to roll out as much as you can onto old newspaper. Put paint thinner into a clean tray and roll the roller in it. Go back to the newspaper and roll on there. Keep doing this, and replace the newspaper with clean dry paper when needed. Wash the roller in warm sudsy water, and let it dry.

2. Wrap rollers in a very loose fitting plastic wrap or paper bag to keep the dust out. The roller should be absolutely and completely dry before you wrap it, or it could get moldy.

3. Hang a ceiling hook in a spot that's out of the way. Put it back on the holder, and put the plastic or paper bag loosely around the roller itself, taping it to the metal shaft of the holder. Hang the holder at the bend of the arm so that it won't touch any surfaces. If the roller touches on anything, it will get a flattened spot there, and it won't ever roll evenly again.

4. Follow these instructions, and rollers should be in great shape for years to come.

Tips & Warnings

• Roll rollers onto dry clean newspaper until you see almost no paint on the paper.

• Avoid putting too much pressure on a roller when pressing down, or you can end up with a flat spot which will make it impossible to roll evenly again.