A major challenge, especially with households having kids, is keeping the walls of their house in shipshape. And in the ‘new normal’ with homes becoming work and study stations, no one would like to spend their time staring at dirty walls, would they? Gharpedia brings some DIY wall cleaning tips for restoring the glory of your walls.
Walls are great. Without them you would not know where a room starts and ends. Walls are there waiting for you with open arms to allow you to give a free rein to your creativity… go ahead and paint them, paper them, create wall arrangements or do any number of other things to make your living space a reflection of your taste and a happy place for you to be.
However, if you are ever confused about how to clean walls easily, then Gharpedia, through this blog, offers you some basic wall cleaning tips which we hope will serve your walls well. Just keep in mind that you can always splash on a new coat of paint or wallpaper if they don’t work out!
So, let’s get started!
We are presenting the Best 5 wall cleaning tips which will make your housekeeping work easy and quick.
01. Cleaning Painted Walls
02. Cleaning Textured Plaster Walls
03. Cleaning a Smoky Wall
04. Removing Wall Stains
05. Magic Dirt Erasers
01. Cleaning Painted Walls
Cleaning Painted Wall
Here’s step-by-step guidance for the most bothered question, how to clean painted walls –
01. To prepare it’s important to protect the floor by laying out a fabric drop cloth or an old bed sheet or towels or pieces of brown paper bags or newspapers. Don’t use plastic drop cloths because they can get very slippery when they’re wet
02. Next, use a soft-bristled brush or a vacuum cleaner to get rid of any dust and cobwebs from the wall (especially in the corners or crevices like near moulding)
03. Clean off any marks from the wall (using the stain-removing tips mentioned in the captioned section) in preparation for the overall washing
04. Next get two buckets. Fill one three-fourth full with warm water and add at least one tablespoon of liquid dish detergent (refrain from using any other kind or soap or detergent as it may adversely impact the colour of the paint). Leave the other bucket empty.
05. Dampen a natural sponge or sponge-mop or wall cleaning mopor even a paint roller in the bucket with the soapy water and wash the wall. Illogical as it sounds always start at the bottom of the wall and work your way to the top. Trust the fact that it’s easier to wipe off dirty streaks from a clean surface than from a wall that’s dirty. Remember to frequently wring out the dirty water from the sponge into the empty bucket then re-dip it in the soapy water.
06. A friendly warning – Embark on the wall cleaning sojourn only if you are prepared to wash the entire wall! Do not stop mid-way – when the wall dries, this will cause a tidemark (a dirty line that shows where you cleaned and where you didn’t). These types of marks can be difficult to remove.
07. After wall washing, rinse it with a clean, damp sponge or wall cleaning mop. Then dry the wall with a terry cloth towel. It’s the best fabric to use for drying and it has a minor loofah effect – so it will help remove the last bits of gunk from the wall.
02. Cleaning Textured Plaster Walls
Cleaning Textured Plaster Walls
Everyone loves textured walls, but when it comes to cleaning, textured wall cleaning is quite tricky, but you don’t worry; we give you an easy-peasy way to clean them.
If you’ve stashed some small squares or swatches of leftover carpet in your junk closet or basement, dig them out – they are great to use to clean textured plaster walls (low-cut, thick piles generally work best).
In a pail, combine one quart of warm water with two tablespoons of liquid laundry detergent and two tablespoons of distilled white vinegar. Dip a piece of carpet in the solution and scrub the walls with the carpet square. It will seep into the crevices and will clean the wall without scratching it. Wipe the wall down with a sturdy, wet sponge and dry it with a terry cloth towel.
03. Cleaning a Smoky Wall
Nicotine Stained Wall
If there’s a smoker in the house walls tend to get a dingy nicotine film – soapy water alone may not be able to cut through it.
Rather than subjecting your lungs to the strong fumes of ammonia we recommend tri-sodium phosphate (TSP) which is available in most hardware stores. This ionic, water soluble salt, used as a cleaning agent and degreaser is also a food additive. This should be a good indication of how user-friendly it is. Follow the instructions on the package.
It’s important to remember that although TSP is safe, it can be strong. So do wear protective gear like – goggles, gloves and even a nose/mouth mask for safety.
04. Removing Wall Stains
Removing Crayons Marks
Well there’s a plethora of wall stain removal methods depending on the type of stain so here you go –
01. To clean grease stain walls, pour some baby powder on a soft, clean cloth – no water necessary. Wait a few minutes then rub a cloth on the spots until they fade away.
02. A baby wipe should remove most crayon marks. You can also spritz them with WD-40 and then clean with a paper towel.
03. If there are marker marks on the wall, put some rubbing alcohol on a cotton puff and wipe the ink spots. The marker should come off and the paint or wallpaper should stay on.
04. To remove ballpoint pen marks, spritz any type of hairspray on the mark then blot it with a clean, soft rag.
05. For pencil marks – as well as fingerprints – use a gum eraser (available at stationery and art-supply stores). If all you have is a pencil eraser that’s also fine. To make sure it’s clean, erase with it first on a blank piece of paper.
06. If you took pictures off the wall and are left with the sticky remains on the masking or transparent tape get out your blow-dryer, set it on low and in one hand let it heat up the adhesive while in the other hand carefully use a knife to scrape up the tape goo.
07. If you don’t trust yourself with the knife then press a bit of transparent tape on the heated residue and pull it off (hopefully you will remove all of the sticky stuff and not add to it!).
05. Magic Dirt Erasers for Wall Cleaning
How can one forget to mention a product that practically all households love and use for wall clean-ups – Mr Clean Magic Eraser (available at supermarkets, home improvement stores and e-commerce portals)?
Not only do these miraculous just-add-water sponges take off crayon, ink and grease stains but they also remove dirt that you didn’t know was there! More often than not you may have to clean the entire area so that there’s not just one small conspicuous clean spot.
Points to Remember while Wall Cleaning
01. It’s not good to remove paint inadvertently while cleaning a wall, nor would you want to get rid of a stain and end up with a conspicuous light spot. So get testy! That is test an inconspicuous part of your wall before you do a general cleaning or hone-in on a smudge, stain or dirty area.
02. Do you have terry cloth sweatbands for your wrists, like tennis players use? If not, you can make wristbands by folding washcloths and securing them with not-too-tight rubber bands. This wristband will help prevent water from running down your arm while your hand is raised to wash the wall, even if you’re wearing plastic gloves.
03. Once you decide which ingredient is necessary to get rid of a wall stain test that ingredient on a small inconspicuous area of the stained surface. By doing this, you’ll make sure it’s not going to create a new (and possibly worse) stain.So, post reading this blog cast an observant eye across the walls of your house and gear up for ‘Clean Walls Project’ this weekend.
When it comes to cleaning, it should not get limited to only wall cleaning but, we have also given tips to clean the floor tiles to shine your old, dull and dirty tiles. You can thank us later and try the solution to get the shine floor again by clicking below.
Image Courtesy: Image 2, Image 3, Image 4, Image 5
Author Bio
Huta Raval – An English Literature and Journalism Topper, Huta Raval has graduated from the L D Arts College, Ahmedabad. Post serving for 23 years in the NBFC and Public Library Sectors her desire for ‘writing the unwritten’ brought her to the creative field of content writing. Her clientele comprises of NGOs, Blogging Platforms, Newspapers, Academic Institutions, et al.