When tackling the huge task of cleaning your home, there are many areas to consider and different ways to clean them. Some of them, like ovens and sinks, require some elbow grease to remove stuck-on grime. Others need a more delicate touch to avoid scratching them, such as windows and appliances.
As with any task of this scale, some areas are overlooked often. Cleaning your walls is one of those areas that you may not be used to cleaning, but is important to maintaining your home. It’s also helpful to know the best ways to clean them to avoid damaging the paint and creating a bigger, more costly job. The professional home painters at Texas Professional Painting are here to help guide you to spotless walls, without peeling or chipping.
Preparing To Clean Your Walls
Before you start scrubbing the walls, be sure to remove as many items mounted to the wall as possible, like pictures and other home décor. Additionally, move any furniture or appliances toward the center of the room or to an adjacent room. Clearing the walls and the floor around them will allow for a more comfortable and safer working environment.
While it can be a big job, especially if you have a larger home, cleaning your walls is relatively inexpensive when it comes to supply costs. Here are some things to keep in mind before you buy supplies and start cleaning your walls:
- Type of paint on your walls
- Area of the house that you’re cleaning
- Severity of stains
Drop cloths or tarps are definitely worth buying. Covering your floors while cleaning your wall minimizes the risk of cleaning solution soaking into carpet or gaps in wood flooring, and will help with clean up overall.
Cleaning Your Walls, And Keeping Them Clean
Be sure to wipe down the walls with a dry cloth to remove any loose dust and dirt before scrubbing with soap and water. This will keep the water in your bucket cleaner for longer and require less frequent water changes. If the soap water becomes very dark and cloudy, change the water to avoid wiping dirty water back onto the wall.
Different Solutions For Different Stains And Paint
Knowing whether the paint is latex or oil-based can be helpful in determining if either an all-purpose cleaner or dish soap and white vinegar, respectively, would be best for the job. If you’re unsure though, dish soap and warm water with a sponge works well for all surfaces.
Different areas of your home may require a different approach. For example, you might have some mud crusted on walls near exterior doorways, while you may find wine or grease stains on walls near kitchen and dining areas.
Some minor stains will come out easily enough with soap and water, but for heavier stains, investing in some baking soda can be a huge time-saver. Applying a paste of baking soda and warm water, then scrubbing with a sponge or cloth will help lift the stain without damaging the paint.
Tips For Quicker Cleaning
It’s important to avoid using excessive amounts of water while cleaning, and to ensure that you dry your walls with a clean cloth as soon as you're finished. Leaving the walls damp can damage the paint, or even cause mildew to grow darker in poorly-ventilated areas, like bathrooms. Opening your windows during warmer seasons can be helpful in speeding up the drying process.
Save time cleaning your walls in the future by cleaning any dirt and grime as ASAP. And dust your walls often with a microfiber cloth, using a cloth-covered broom or mop for harder-to-reach areas.
Preventative maintenance reduces the need for extensive scrubbing in the future since stains will have less time to stick to the surface, and will keep your home interior painting looking newer and brighter for longer.
What To Do When You Strip The Paint
You might come across a stubborn spot or stain that took a while to scrub off. After a hard-fought effort, you’ve finally gotten the spot clean, but in the process, you accidentally took some of the paint off of the wall. Or maybe after cleaning your walls, you feel that they still look dull and could use a fresh coat of paint.
No matter the case, the top-rated San Antonio painting company Texas Professional Painting is here for all of your home interior painting needs. Call to schedule a consultation today!
