Give your walls a good clean

Use a mild detergent and clean warm water when cleaning walls. Photo by Ismail Kezaala

What you need to know:

  • One can also use a blow drier to dust the walls and remove any cobwebs.
  • Immaculate Kateregga, a professional cleaner, warns that before the big clean up, one needs to take into consideration the type of paint on their walls, since not all wall paint can be cleaned

Walls are some of the places susceptible to dust, soiling, smears, smudges, fingerprints and colouring around the house, especially with children around. Now that they are probably away for the school term, it might be time for you to give those painted walls a proper clean.
However, Immaculate Kateregga, a professional cleaner, warns that before the big clean up, one needs to take into consideration the type of paint on their walls, since not all wall paint can be cleaned. “The easiest paint to clean is the super gloss, which is usually painted outdoor, but also, satin/eggshell paint is easy to clean and more people are using it indoor currently, and matte is the hardest to clean since it is very flat and easily washed away during cleaning,” she shares. This means if your walls are matte and are too stained, you might consider repainting.

Tips before cleaning
Kateregga further advises that remove all things against and near the wall for more space. Also, cover things in the room you may not want to soil during the cleaning process. To ease work, also cover the floors.
Clean the entire wall from top to bottom but also, clean the entire wall at once or in one session to avoid leaving marks on the wall.
Use a mild detergent and warm water mixture or wall cleaner to clean walls, and use white vinegar for very soiled walls/ parts, since vinegar is a good stain remover. Other things needed in the exercise will include a duster, to remove any dust especially on top of the wall, a clean small towel, a sponge, and two buckets, one for soapy water and the other for clean water for rinsing and a standing stool to help you reach high areas.

Cleaning
It is wise to start with dusting the wall from top to bottom. Additionally, one can also use a blow drier to dust the walls and remove any cobwebs.
After this, dip the sponge in the soapy mixture and gently rub the wall evenly, not just the stain, but the entire wall.
Rinse the sponge with clean water and with it, rinse off the soap from the wall and use a clean towel to dry it up.
Avoid over rubbing while cleaning up the wall lest you wash the colour off the wall. For stubborn stains, have a separate mixture of warm water and vinegar to help you remove them with less struggle.
“Like hinted earlier, clean the entire wall in one session before taking a break, so that it doesn’t make patches.

Also make sure that the water in which you are rinsing the wall is clean so as not to leave any dirty marks. For very old paint, a repaint will do much better than just cleaning the walls,” Kateregga adds.
She also advises one to chose the type of paint to use for a room depending on how busy and susceptible to being stained it is.