Painting with latex paint - need advice...

[jlaspoq]

.... what do you do when you need to stop for a few minutes? or for an hour? If I still have some paint in my handy little pail (not the paint can itself), and I have two brushes going, is there a way I can put it all aside for a little while without having to clean everything up? I'm finding that the brushes are getting a little too dry (takes awhile to clean them) and I'm afraid to stop before my paint pail is empty. Or if I want to paint more when it is empty, but I'm not sure if I have time to finish another round of paint, then I just don't start it, which means I'm wasting paint time.

Someone told me to put it all in a walmart type bag in the fridge.... has anyone tried this?

I'm a painting novice - painting trim work - and it's going well, but I have a feeling I could use some advice on easier handling for clean up!

Thanks.

 

[HERSEY]

I don't put it in the frig. but covering with the plastic bags work just fine for us.

 

[cardaway]

We wrap them as well. Get as airtight as possible. The fridge does nothing.

 

[golfgal]

We just zip them up in a ziplock bag if it is going to be more then a couple hours or if it is less then then that, just wrap them in a plastic grocery bag. We have even wrapped up a paint tray overnight in a plastic grocery bag and the paint was fine the next day.

Some people will freeze their brushes if they don't have time to clean them when they are done. That will keep the paint from drying on the brush and when you thaw them out you can clean the paint off.

 

[HonestAbe]

I don't put it in the frig. but covering with the plastic bags work just fine for us.

Same here

 

[ChristmasElf]

I use plastic white Hefty garbage bags and just put the tray and brushes in and close the bag over the top and tuck it under to get as much air out as possible.

If your brushes get a little dry and the paint hardens on them, Michaels sells a product that will remove the dried paint from the brushes. Just soak them for a bit and the paint will come right off. It's Latex Paint Remover-comes in a plastic bottle and is located where the paintbrushes are sold at Michaels.

 

[jlaspoq]

Thanks for all the terrific advice! I will try the bags for sure. It's amazing how much trim one house has...........