In Tampa, the lanai isn't outdoor space — it's a room you live in ten months a year. It also takes more abuse than any indoor room: pollen coats everything every spring, summer humidity feeds green mildew film on every shaded surface, and Gulf air keeps it all damp. Here's the seasonal routine that keeps yours guest-ready.

Top-down order

Always clean a lanai ceiling-to-floor, or you'll do the floor twice:

  1. Cobwebs and ceiling corners — a soft broom or extendable duster, including around fans and light fixtures.
  2. Screens — brush or vacuum loose pollen first, then wash gently with a soft brush and soapy water from inside, rinsing with a garden hose from outside. The dirt rinses outward instead of through.
  3. Furniture — see below.
  4. Floor last — sweep, then scrub.

The green film (mildew) on floors and frames

That slippery green-black film on shaded pavers and aluminum frames is mildew and algae. Mix a solution of 1 part oxygen bleach (the powder kind, e.g. sodium percarbonate) in 4 parts warm water, apply with a stiff push broom, let it dwell 10–15 minutes, scrub, and rinse. It's effective and far kinder to nearby landscaping than chlorine bleach.

Pressure washers — caution: great on bare concrete; destructive on screens, window seals, painted aluminum, and paver sand joints. If you rent one, use a wide fan tip, keep your distance, and never aim it at the screen enclosure or door tracks.

Patio furniture by material

  • Plastic/resin wicker: soapy water and a soft brush; rinse and dry. For sun-chalked white plastic, a paste of baking soda restores a lot of the brightness.
  • Aluminum frames: soapy water, then a coat of car wax once a year — it sheds Gulf-air corrosion and makes next season's wipe-down trivial.
  • Cushions: most covers unzip and machine-wash cold (air dry, never machine dry). For non-removable covers, scrub with a mix of warm water, a squirt of dish soap, and a tablespoon of borax; rinse and stand them on edge in the sun to dry fully — a damp cushion in Florida is a mildew sponge.
  • Glass tabletops: the same bucket-and-squeegee method as windows.
Pro tip: after everything is clean and dry, spray cushions and fabric with an outdoor water-repellent treatment (the kind sold for camping gear). It buys you a full season where pollen and rain bead off instead of soaking in — the difference between a hose-rinse and a re-scrub.

The maintenance rhythm

Full routine quarterly; a 10-minute sweep-and-furniture-wipe weekly. Time the big cleans for after pollen season (late April) and after the summer rains taper (October) and you'll always be working with the weather instead of against it.