Day 2. Walls and Baseboards

Day 2 of “A 30 Day Guide to Spring Cleaning“

---

We clean our floors, our counters, our tables and surfaces. We sweep and mop regularly, we vacuum regularly, but when was the last time you cleaned your walls? Your walls can get just as dirty as anything else in your home, especially if you have kids or pets!

I actually have to wash my lower walls quite often as I believe that one of my dog’s favorite hobbies is to rub up against the same walls over and over. Plus, I have young children that enjoy sticky hands, running their hands along the walls, and wiping a random bugger as a “Just for You” surprise to find later.

Cleaning your walls can give your home a very nice refresh, take out a lot of built up dust and allergens, and make your walls look shiny and new again!

---

What to clean:

• Wall high and low
• Baseboards top edge to floor
• Marks and spots on walls/baseboards
• Décor on walls

---

Prep for Washing

To prepare for washing your walls:

• Remove all easily removable décor (or if you have the time and are highly motivated, remove all décor)
• Get your cleaning supplies ready
• Move any furniture or items up against walls
• Make sure your floors are relatively clean to avoid getting debris in your cleaning supplies
• Determine your room plan of attack (in my bi-level house I clean top to bottom)

Cleaning Supplies:

• Recommended: Envirocloth and Water (good for all paint surfaces)
• Flat Paint: only water and a cloth, bucket
• Eggshell, satin, semi gloss: water and dish soap, cloth, bucket
• Oil Based and gloss: mild all purpose cleaner and cloth, bucket
• Scuffs and Marks: cleaning paste (alternatively, you can also use baking soda or a magic eraser but they aren’t quite as effective)

Dish Soap ‘Paid Link’ All Purpose Cleaner ‘Paid Link’

---

Washing Walls

Make sure you have followed all the prep instructions listed above. Once the prep is complete, you can begin washing the walls. Wash from the top down, especially when using a bucket with water and cleaner. The water and cleaner will likely run, and you don’t want run marks or dirty water running down onto your already cleaned surface. Clean room by room through the house.

If you are short on time, cleaning the touchable areas down on your walls will prove to be most important, but I assure you, you have high potential for seeing a difference between the tops and bottoms of your walls.

I really like using an extension cleaner, like the mop system here to clean the higher places, as I really don’t enjoy hauling ladders inside. The images shown are of my 12′ high entry way walls, and all I needed was a step stool!

Make sure you switch out your water regularly, and rinse out your cloths and extension tools. The last thing you want to do is add dirty water onto your walls and leave a residue and muddy appearance!

---

Cleaning Baseboards

I am not going to present too much detail for this section, as you have already washed your walls from the top down. DON’T SKIP THE BASEBOARDS. Baseboards get really gross, especially with kids and animals. They protect your walls from all the damage they typically receive, and they get scuffed up quickly, and the top edge can get very dusty and dirty.

Not cleaning your baseboards can lead to so much build up that you might need to scrape it off, or empty several buckets of water with a lot of scrubbing. The baseboards in our house, when we moved in, were in terrible condition and couldn’t even be painted.

---

Scuffs and Marks (plus scratches)

Scuff and marks can sometimes be removed easily, and sometimes they are a lot harder to remove. While I was cleaning my walls, I found a lovely permanent marker spot that I used as an example for scuff and mark removal.

My absolute favorite products for scuffs and marks (and permanent marker) is the Envirocloth and Cleaning Paste. These two items do a fantastic job at removing even the hardest marks on walls. I have included a before and after of the permanent marker spot below.

Alternatively, you can use baking soda or magic erasers for scuffs and marks. Baking Soda ‘Paid Link’ Magic Eraser ‘Paid Link’

Removing Scuffs and Marks:

1. Take enviro cloth and get it wet (squeeze out excess water)
2. Wipe over top of the cleaning past with the wet cloth
3. Use this white spot to lightly scrub the scuff/mark
4. Continue to lightly scrub over the area until the spot is removed
5. Note: do not apply hard pressure to start as this could wear the paint

Scratches

For scratches and nicks in the paint, I recommend keeping extra paint from when your room was painted to use for touchups in the future. If you do not have current paint, a lot of times you can get a paint match done at a home improvement or local hardware store (if you have something to bring in to match).

You can store extra paint for touch ups in touch up paint pens like these Touch Up Paint Pen ‘Paid Link’. You can also store the entire paint can, and simply use a cotton swab like a Q-tip to touch it up by just dipping it in the paint can and blotting in the area needed (be sure to mix your paint!!!!).

---

If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments and I would be happy to get back with you.

Check out Day 1. Window and Screens here.

Check out Day 3. Ceilings and Light Fixtures here.

If you would like to see the remainder of this 30 day cleaning guide posts, please enter your email below and you will receive email notifications for future posts.