How Often to Clean Walls. As part of your regularly scheduled chores, painted walls should be dusted and cobwebs removed at least monthly—twice a month is even better. You should clean smudges and dirt around doorknobs and light switches weekly.
Kitchen and bathroom walls need regular cleaning. Living areas and bedrooms can probably do with an annual wall-washing, at most. Spot cleaning keeps lesser-used guest bedrooms clean for years. Kitchens and bathrooms need the most attention because moisture and oils in the air cause dirt to stick to vertical surfaces.
To keep your walls looking fresh between annual or bi-annual scrubs, plan to spot-clean and dust your walls every few months to maintain clean surfaces. It's also helpful to vacuum and clean your ceiling fans regularly to prevent the buildup of dust on walls in rooms with high traffic.
Avoid harsh chemicals and use a mix of mild detergent and water. Semigloss or glossy finishes, popular on kitchen walls are durable enough to stand up to degreasing cleaners. They are also susceptible to scratches. Latex paint finishes can be cleaned with warm water mixed with a nonabrasive cleaner.
If it isn't done properly or done at all, it can negatively impact your final paint job because paint cannot adequately adhere to a dirty surface. Over time, your walls can get covered in dust, dirt, and grime. To ensure that paint adheres to your wall for a perfect, lasting finish, clean your walls.
The wall cleaner you'll use is safe, effective, and readily available—all you need is dish soap and salt. The dish soap cuts through grease and dirt while the salt acts as an abrasive to remove stains and grime. Combine one cup of dish soap and one cup of salt to mix a thick, gritty paste.
You can quickly clean smooth-surfaced walls with a wet Swiffer mop. It can touch hard-to-reach spots on the wall and slides easily along the corners. The primary downside is that fresh Swiffer pads can leave drips, which can leave marks and get behind outlets and light switches.
Consider the advice of the major paint companies: PPG: "Wipe walls clean of dust and dirt." Behr: "If you need to remove any oil, grease, or wax stains, apply a mild detergent with a sponge onto a lightly water-dampened surface, rinse with clean water and allow it to dry."
You can wipe off dust and dirt from walls with a simple sponge dipped in water and dish soap, but the most important step is what comes after you finish cleaning the surface. It's crucial to do a second step and take time to dry the walls with a clean cloth in order to eliminate spots and discolorations.
Washing your bed sheets about once a week ensures they always stay fresh. Plan to add this task to your weekly cleaning schedule to help reinforce the habit. Keep in mind that you don't necessarily need to wash sheets the same day as you strip your bed.
Preparing Walls for Painting
To clean walls before painting, professional painters use special wall cleaners or mild detergents and water to remove dust, dirt, grime, and stubborn stains from the surface. Professional painters may also pressure wash or vacuum cleaner surfaces if needed.
As to why a wall should be washed from the bottom up, Watt says that if you start from the top, the cleaning solution will drain down the wall, causing it to streak.
Once a month: Your baseboards can collect dust and dirt, but most homeowners don't see cleaning the baseboards as a priority. If you keep up with cleaning them once a month the task won't be too time-consuming. Protip: Use the brush attachment on your vacuum to swipe the top edge where the dust settles.
Always start at the bottom of the wall and work your way to the top. While it may seem counterintuitive, it's easier to clean drips off a clean wall than a dirty one. Overlap the cleaning areas to prevent streaks. Walls that are painted with a gloss or semi-gloss paint generally respond well to cleaning.
Step 3: Rinse and blot the area
The last thing you want is to use too much soap on painted walls. That is a real mistake. With that in mind, when you have first gone over the area, the next step is to rinse the sponge. You can use the cold water in the bowl to do this.
Never heavily soap a wall as the residue is very tricky to get off, maybe more so than the original dirt! Baby wipes can work wonders but be careful as they can remove the paint if used too vigorously.
From here, just swiffer as if you were going to dust under the item you suspect to be harboring mold, using the swiffer's maneuverability to wipe down corners and wall edges behind objects and scrubbing action to dislodge it all.
Add just a few drops of dish detergent or a few tablespoons of vinegar to approximately half a bucket of water. Once these solutions have been mixed together, use a soft sponge to gently remove dirt and grime from your walls. Make sure to wring out the sponge thoroughly between each scrub and rinse session.
If your paint finish is eggshell, semigloss, high-gloss, or oil-based, you can clean your walls with a light washing using a diluted solution of liquid dishwashing soap and warm water.
Knowing the finish of your wall helps to determine your level of exertion to avoid damaging the paint. Generally speaking: The higher the gloss or sheen, the easier to clean, e.g. satin/pearl, semi-gloss, high gloss. The lower the sheen, the gentler you need to be, e.g. flat, matte, eggshell.
No matter what type of paint you have on your wall, fill the bucket about halfway and never use more than a couple drops of dish detergent. Some alternatives: castile soap instead of dish detergent, a microfiber cloth instead of a sponge, and a long-handled, soft-bristled brush for hard-to-reach places.