My Mom Uses Orange Glo to Make Thrift Furniture Look New

Not much feels better than finding the exact piece of furniture you’re looking for, at a way affordable price. Fortunately for me, my mom is a champion thrift shopper. She makes the rounds of secondhand shops and yard sales on the regular, so I never know when a text might pop up with a picture of a cool piece, an almost-too-good-to-be-true price, and a question mark. Of course the object in question often shows some signs of neglect and may be layered in dust and grime, but I learned early from my mom that with some elbow grease and the right cleaning product, it can come back to life.

She’s actually found three dining tables for me over the years — most recently when my husband and I moved from a small shotgun house to a mid-century tri-level where we have a dining room again. Because I would always rather have old furniture with soul, and definitely am not into paying new furniture store prices, I was thrilled when the text landed with photos of a great table from a manufacturer called Drexel, from 1971. It was only $125, so that was a quick yes, even though it was a little sticky and grubby-looking.

My parents were nice enough to bring it to us in my dad’s truck, and my mom is not the type to bring me a dirty piece of furniture, so she spiffed it up before heading our way. And despite the table being more than 50 years old, the wood gleamed when we got it set up in the dining room — like, we’re talking Downton Abbey-level clean. I complimented how nice it looked and she later texted me a picture of her secret: Orange Glo Wood Furniture 2-in-1 Clean and Polish Spray.

It turns out she first stumbled upon this product when she and my dad used to collect Art Deco pottery. They spent a lot of time scouring antique stores, and “everything always glowed and smelled like oranges when they used it,” in the shops, she says. 

My mom’s not the only fan: The cleaner pulls in an impressive 4.8 stars on Amazon. And it makes cleaning old treasures pretty pain-free. “I spray it right on there, and let it kind of soak in, and then take a rag and kind of buff it off,” she explains. And this stuff doesn’t just clean, she adds, it nourishes wood. (When I talked to her about it for this story she actually suggested I use it on an heirloom oak dresser I have that’s been in the family for five generations.) 

Thanks to that inherited thrift store gene, I scored my own deals recently, finding an amazing coffee table and side table at a yard sale that are perfect for our mid-century modern living room. They’re definitely a bit worse for the wear, so as soon as I can get my hands on a bottle of this magic orange cleaner I’m giving them my mom’s treatment.

Buy: Orange Glo Wood Furniture spray 2 in 1 Clean and Polish, $5.48