Cleaning my pots and planters every year is/was the bane of my existence. I would use Soft Scrub with bleach and scrub away the crud that accumulated from the past year. 85% of my pots are fiberglass, ceramic, or resin. The others are heavy durable plastic. When I was at Lowe's last week, the Garden Center manager asked me if I had everything planted. I said I had most of my stuff planted and how much I hated cleaning the pots every year. He told me to use a microfiber cloth and it would work better than scrubbing. Guess what? He was right! I whipped out one I had around the house and had all of my remaining pots clean within a few minutes compared to a few hours. No water, no cleaner, no mess, and it was at least 20 times faster and they look great. Why didn't someone tell me about this sooner? The outsides of the pots look brand new.
He also told me that when his plastic pots start looking rough, he paints them with Fusion spray paint which is made for plastic. He said the paint has lasted on his for 3 or 4 years so far. I tried that too and what a difference. The big plastic pots were 24" terra cotta color with scuffs on them. I painted 2 of them with glossy navy blue and they look like ceramic. It took 2 coats to get them the way I wanted them to look, but it dries in 15 minutes. I was impressed.
I hope this helps someone with either problem. These tips sure worked for me.
Cleaning used pots and planters
Great tips! Can you post a picture of the painted pots? I had thought about using that Fusion paint.
I like the idea of not having to scrub the pots anymore, but if you're cleaning out the inside of pots that used to have other plants in them I think it's still a good idea to use a little bleach--that way if there were any diseases in the previous soil they won't make your new plants sick. But at least if you can scrub off the dirt with the cloth first, the bleach step should be pretty quick and easy.