Cleaning Walls
White Walls Aren’t Just for Tires
Cleaning your house once a week is a great rule to live by, but cleaning walls is not so easy. Cleaning your walls will simply depend on how big your house is, what your interior is made of, and how much time you have to do it. Cleaning walls is not an everyday chore on the list, for which many of us are so very thankful.
A majority of us are cleaning painted walls, so on the surface it seems as though it would be fairly simple. The first and easiest way to keep your cleaning obligation down as far as your walls are concerned, is to dust over them with a Swiffer extendable duster. That way, you have all the dust out of the way and you aren’t breathing it in either. Then, you can take a bucket of warm water and white vinegar diluted and wipe your walls down. You might be surprised by how powerful vinegar is and how well it cleans, and it doesn’t have any strong chemical compounds in it so it’s safe to breathe.
When cleaning walls, keep in mind you want to clean them from bottom to top. Make sure you have clean soft towels that have been used, so that when you are drying your walls, you aren’t leaving lint on the walls. When your walls are already damp, lint will probably stick to it so be careful.
Don’t dress well when doing this chore, wear your worst! The most annoying thing that happens while cleaning walls is having water drip down your arm, so use an old t-shirt and old sweats or shorts. You may also want to put a drop cloth down to keep your floors clean too. When you have hardwood floors you don’t want water to run down as it can cause water damage and leave horrible streaks.
When the towel you are using becomes too damp, make sure you switch it out. Using a towel that is too damp will only cause you more problems. That can also release lint onto the wall as you are moving the towel in a circular motion to dry.
If you have an inside wall that is made of stone, you have to use some untraditional methods. Outside is easy because you can pressure wash it, but with stone you can’t just grab a towel and bucket of water. The best way to clean and inside stone wall is to sandblast it. This method isn’t really family friendly, so you might want to do this while the children are gone. You will also need to get a large plastic curtain to block it off from the rest of the room because of the dust it creates.
Last but not least, cleaning brick walls also makes things interesting especially when you have a brick wall surrounding your fireplace. With a fireplace present it can really change the look of your walls with the build-up from soot.
Cleaning the brick wall doesn’t have to be that bad, but you have to be willing to work at it. Grab yourself a sponge, a bucket of water and some bathroom cleaner if you have it. Before you start cleaning, make sure you prepare the area just as you would anytime you clean walls. Grab yourself some towels to put down and use rubber gloves to protect your hands. Also, make sure you have a scrub brush in hand to get rid of that black stuff, but don’t scrub too hard it can get a little messy. With brick walls, you will start from the top down just in case the water starts to run down bringing some black stuff with it. The foamy bathroom cleaner works really well to get rid of the soot, just be sure to dip the sponge in the water to rinse it often to keep the cleaning process going.