How to Clean Walls, Ceilings & Baseboards (Spring Cleaning 2022)

when i talk about cleaning the surfaces of your home one of the surfaces i don't often refer to walls ceilings and baseboards i guess that's really three surfaces because those seem like things that you do every once in a while but not something that needs a regular focus so in this video we're going to cover that once in a while cleaning what you should be doing for your walls your ceilings and your baseboards to keep them looking clean and in tip-top shape because after all they're kind of like the skin of your home and when you walk in and they look marked up and dirty the whole house feels dirty walls and ceilings need to be tackled relatively infrequently your baseboards are the thing of all three of these that you'll want to clean the most often and i can't give you an exact interval for how long you should wait between cleanings because each home is unique so let me discuss some of the issues that could affect the frequency that you'll need to clean these first and foremost if you have a smoker in your home you'll notice that wall ceilings and baseboards can cling on to odors and they can also start yellowing so you'll want to maintain those wells uh ceilings and baseboards more frequently than if you live in a non-smoking home the same thing goes for pet owners specifically dog owners because what ends up happening is dogs will run their little noses along your walls and your baseboards they'll leave marks they can also chuck toys and that could be an issue even people with small kids kids like to you know touch walls draw with crayon you get a lot of fingerprints and stains so that is going to up how frequently you need to clean your walls and your baseboards i know i have crayon stains on my walls that wouldn't have been there three years ago before you start cleaning your walls you want to know about the kind of paint that you have and if it can tolerate cleaning you'll often hear me say make sure that you test it in a hidden area first and this is a perfect example of that because if you start cleaning one of those surfaces with a solution that we talk about here it could leave a mark that you actually can't get off your wall and that would be because the type of paint that you have on the wall couldn't handle the type of cleaning so anything that we talk about from here on in just make sure that you test it in a small hidden area first and keep in mind that there are four different types of paint that you might have at home a mat an eggshell a semi-gloss or a gloss typically in wetter or dirtier parts of your home like kitchens and bathrooms you'll see a semi-gloss or a gloss which are easier to clean and wipe away whereas eggshell and matte will obviously show uh more cleaning stains if you will so you've got to be really mindful about the way that you tackle your cleaning of your walls on the topic of paint using it to refresh the baseboards walls and ceilings once a year really helps keep your home look fresh and up to date in fact one of the secrets of hotels is they have someone on the maintenance team who literally just goes around the hotel touching up scuff marks with paint all the time because it helps to make the place look fresh so you can do the same thing at home a couple pointers on this when you're painting your home make sure that you retain the paint chip so that you know exactly the color that you need to get the little can of and on the topic of the little can when you go to a paint store you can request a sample can which is about yay big cost you a few dollars you can bring that home use it for touch-ups and that way you don't have to go and buy a whole gallon can this is something that you can do once a year it doesn't take very long and it makes a huge difference baseboards are of the three the one that you'll have to clean the most frequently because they are a horizontal surface and they're right at the bottom of your home so dust always falls from top to bottom and loves horizontal surfaces that's why baseboards can look so dusty and dirty the other thing that you deal with with baseboards scuff marks someone might have you know kicked it with a shoe or thrown something and you'll see little nicks and scuffs all over the place so here is how we deal with baseboards you can either use a vacuum with a brush attachment that's pretty quick and easy you can also use a dust mop or a microfiber mop like the makers mop or you can use a microfiber cloth just to give them a wipe but i want you to remember that you should always use a dry tool to get rid of dust because as soon as you use a wet tool to get rid of dust on a baseboard it actually kind of glues some of the dust behind and it can be really difficult to remove after all right so now you've dusted your baseboards you're good to go here is how to clean them you can use a very simple solution of all-purpose cleaner we want to keep it nice and simple when i say all-purpose cleaner you can check out a recipe down below and you can apply that with a dampened microfiber cloth or sponge so what you'll do is you'll wipe you'll work section by section and then what i think is a great idea is to dry each section with a microfiber cloth too now if you notice a scuff mark or something that's rather difficult to clean you can add a little touch of baking soda to your microfiber cloth and literally use your finger to kind of erase or scribble it out again you'll want to test that technique in a hidden area too just to make sure it's not affecting your paint when we think about cleaning a full wall there are a few cases where this would make sense if you're moving into a new home or if you're about to paint a wall you would want to prep it by cleaning it first while they don't generally get too dusty or dirty when you're doing something like painting you really want to make sure it's a 100 smooth and clean surface and if you live in a home with someone who smokes over time the wall will discolor and also absorb some of that tobacco smell the way to clean your wall at first would be to use a dry microfiber mop and use the w pattern going up and down working your way from left to right around the wall the same principles from the baseboard applies you want to remove any dry dust first and then you can wet treat the wall afterward so if you want to move on to that step and actually get rid of any build up on the wall what you would want to do is mix up a solution of a gallon of water then you would want to use about a tablespoon of dish soap and about a cup of white vinegar so what you'll do next is you'll wet your mop pad and you're going to work section by section using that same w pattern what i would recommend is to make sure that your mop pad is really well rung out too much moisture on drywall is going to be problematic and then i would also recommend finishing it up with a dry microfiber pad or towel just to remove any of that excess moisture then you can move on to the next section and work your way around the room the general wall cleaning that you'll do is just spot cleaning that's what pops up the most and what you'll see most likely are fingerprints and scuff marks these are pretty straightforward and easy to clean you want to use the same all-purpose cleaner solution we talked about for the baseboard and if you notice anything particularly greasy you can apply a little bit of cornstarch to the area where let's say there's a greasy fingerprint let the cornstarch sit for a period of time gently scrape it off with a dull edge and then clean the surface with a bit of all-purpose cleaner that's a great easy way the cornstarch absorbs the oil and gets it off the surface for you now for scuff marks these happen when things get whipped around the room or shoes get kicked off scuff marks are generally pretty easy to clean and the way that you can approach it is like i said earlier with baseboards using that all-purpose solution on a microfiber cloth and sprinkling a little bit of baking soda on there then you can just gently start to remove it with your finger other things that work really well a magic eraser what i said earlier is just an easy quick way to do it but if you have a magic eraser handy people swear by that as well what i always recommend is to rinse the surface afterward just to get rid of any grittiness that's left behind either by the baking soda or the magic eraser the bathroom does present a few unique wall cleaning opportunities so the first one let's just cover it it's by the toilet if you notice that there are splatters and the way that you would know this is by sort of angling yourself not looking straight on at the wall but kind of angling the way you look and you'll start to see any of those drip marks that will tell you exactly where you need to clean now the other thing you could do if you want to be fancy is you could get a black light but the trick i told you works really well too the best way to deal with urine splatters is to use an enzyme cleaner something like bio clean i'll link it for you down below you basically spray it onto the surface i would also do the base in the area around the toilet as well as the baseboards let it sit and then you can wipe it away this will really help to reduce not only those marks but also any odors associated with it the kitchen is another area that you'll want to pay attention to the walls in on a regular basis that's because you're dealing with a lot of grease and a lot of splatters so if you're in an area that's close to your cooktop you might notice that there are some greasy splatters or marks that you need to deal with you can use that cornstarch trick another thing you can try is the enzyme cleaner again you just want to make sure that the paint can handle it so test in hidden area first and when you're going about your day cleaning up your kitchen after a meal just do a quick visual inspection on the wall and wipe up any of those stains just like with clothing the longer a stain or a mark sits on the wall the more likely it is to set in and the more likely you'll have to do some repair work so the quicker you can handle it the better generally speaking the ceiling stays pretty clean unless you're like me and you accidentally spill a smoothie and it has an explosive moment in your living room that did happen to us the other thing that happened in this room we had a really pesky mosquito and finally chad managed to swat it and it laid to rest on our ceiling so those are some things that you might come across from a sealing stain standpoint from time to time now if you have a popcorn ceiling generally stains can be a little bit easier to camouflage but on a flat ceiling they can be pretty difficult and because ceiling paint is so matte it actually doesn't tolerate cleaning very well at all so what i would recommend is you can wipe the surface as gingerly as possible but be prepared that you will probably see the spot that you cleaned and you might want to paint over it with some ceiling paint now the same thing goes for if you accidentally get some paint on the ceiling you can just quickly touch it up there popcorn ceilings i get asked a lot about how to clean them it is quite laborious to clean so what i would recommend is if you see an area that is particularly dirty and by that i mean there's quite a collection of dust in a particular area so there's discoloration you just want to use a vacuum with a brush attachment to quickly sweep around the area and remove any of that buildup generally in cleaning i always tell you to clean from the top to the bottom but today we went from the bottom to the top but now you know how to clean your ceilings your walls and your baseboards and i'd love to know in the comments down below when it comes to picking paint are you someone that likes to go for neutrals like this while behind me or are you someone that likes to go for something more bold like maybe a wallpaper or a bright color like i mean it's not a bright color but it is a bold choice and we went for a lot of color in this house aside from this room so let me know your paint thoughts in the comments down below now if you want to learn about how to clean floors in a rather comprehensive manner you can check out this video right over here and you can learn more about the maker's mop i was using this video by clicking those links right down there i hope you enjoy this video and that i've helped you along your journey toward a cleaner life thanks so much for watching and we'll see you next time

Channel: Clean My Space

Views: 443,872

Keywords: how to clean walls, how to clean baseboards, how to clean ceilings, clean my space, melissa maker, cleaning tips, clean, clean walls, clean baseboards, clean ceilings, spring cleaning, spring cleaning 2021

Id: TGMOZRwITcQ

Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 19 2021