8 Tips for Making Your Paint Brushes and Rollers Last Longer

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Double the Life of Your Paint Brushes

To ensure a lifetime of use out of your synthetic paint brushes, clean each one immediately after using it, before the paint has a chance to dry. Wipe the brush on newspaper to remove excess paint. Then stick the brush into a bucket of warm water and move it around to remove as much paint as possible.

Next, hold the brush under running water. Run a wire brush or a kitchen fork down the bristles to remove dried paint. When the water running off the bristles turns clear, the brush is clean.

Let each paint brush air dry, then wrap it with the cardboard cover it came in or heavy paper, like a grocery bag. To keep the bristles straight, hang the brushes from a nail or hook, or store them flat.

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Lint-Free Paint Roller

Cheap paint rollers shed all over the paint as you roll it on, but they’re good because they’re disposable — no cleanup! Before using one, wipe it with a self-adhesive lint roller to remove all the loose fuzz. No more picking it off wet walls.

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Best Way to Clean Roller Covers

If you do a lot of roll-on painting and use premium roller covers you don’t want to throw away, get a Roller Washer ($15). You’ll be glad you did. It’s easy to use and gets the rollers incredibly clean — a task that takes a long time by hand, and even then you rarely get a truly clean nap.

Just hook up the hose to a faucet, slide the roller cover into the tube and watch the water flush out the paint in minutes.

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