Most Indian homes get cleaned every day. The domestic help ensures the floors are swept and mopped, and the cook ensures the kitchen platform is clean. The walls of ...
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Most Indian homes get cleaned every day. The domestic help ensures the floors are swept and mopped, and the cook ensures the kitchen platform is clean. The walls of our homes are often forgotten, only to be remembered during the annual festive cleaning.
Cleaning walls is rarely on the top of anyone’s list, including the cleanliness-obsessed. The most important thing you need to clean walls is patience.
Before you start cleaning the walls, ensure you have all the right supplies – from a broom and vacuum cleaner to brushes, cloth, sponges, and cleaning solutions. This might seem like an obvious thing to point out but know that you’ll find yourself being tempted to abandon the project mid-way when you realise you’ve forgotten something. Quite like how you’d abandon that master chef-level recipe because there’s that one ingredient missing. So, don’t be that guy.
As with everything, there is a logic behind cleaning walls, too. You don’t start from bottom to top but rather from top to bottom. When you clean out the cobwebs and the top half of the wall, the dust falls down, and you keep cleaning it as you work your way to the bottom, cleaning the floor at the end.
Now, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to clean walls.
By this, we mean removing all the paintings and knickknacks and moving any pieces of furniture that are blocking the wall. If you have a carpet, roll it up and put it away. Other pieces of furniture like the sofa or bed, which you may not want to get to cleaning immediately after, must be covered with a large-sized cloth. This will ensure they don’t get dusty after your wall-cleaning expedition.
Dusting is perhaps the most crucial step in cleaning walls. If you don’t dust the wall and simply skip to shampooing it, you’re going to make it messier and dirtier
You can start with a broom and/or a vacuum cleaner. Which one you opt for comes down to personal preference. Many people prefer the feel of the broom because they believe it cleans better. And that’s ok. Just make sure to get the ceiling, too, as well as the fans and the cobwebs. If you have a false ceiling, ensure you clean that, too. Beware of the wiring inside the ceiling because you will disconnect a few lights if you aren’t very careful. A single sweep of a broom or a round of vacuum cleaning should be good here.
You could also use a dry microfibre cloth to clean the walls and electric fixtures instead of a broom or vacuum cleaner for better (or at least more satisfying) results.
Before you proceed to shampoo the walls, make sure to spot-clean the stains that may have been left behind. It could be your child’s work of art or some other mark of dodgy origins. Clean those first.
You can use vinegar, baking soda, or any commercial cleaning product to clean these stains.
To remove stains using vinegar, spray a of equal parts white vinegar and water on the stain and let it sit for a few minutes. Scrub with a soft sponge if it’s a tough stain. Then, wipe the area clean with a damp cloth.
To remove stains using baking soda, make baking soda paste and apply it to the stained area. Let it sit for some 15 minutes, and then scrub it with a soft sponge. Then, wipe it down with a damp cloth.
To remove stains using an all-purpose cleaner, pour some out on a damp sponge or cloth and gently scrub the stained area. Let it sit for a few minutes, and then wipe it down using a damp cloth.
Make sure to try out each of these in smaller, inconspicuous places before you attack that one stain at eye level.
Read more about removing stains here.
Now, your walls are ready for a final round of cleaning.
Mix mild dishwashing soap with warm water to create a soapy solution. Using a soft sponge, start cleaning the wall. Clean in small circular motion, like you would when you’re cleaning a car or Mr Miyagi did while training Daniel in Karate Kid.
Yet again, start from the top to the bottom and clean the water droplets as you go down till you reach the floor.
Next, follow the same process, except with a clean wet cloth. This will remove all soapy residue to give you a bright, clean wall.
Avoid over-scrubbing and using a harsh sponge. Scrub marks on an otherwise clean wall will defeat the entire purpose of cleaning the walls.
You would be tempted to skip this step but don’t give into that temptation. This is perhaps as crucial a step as dusting the wall.
Cleaning the wall with a dry cloth will ensure there are no water stains left behind and that dust won’t get stuck to the wet wall.
To clean walls effectively, follow this process for one wall at a time. Patience is key to getting clean walls at home. Or, you could simply book an appointment with Urban Company and let our experts work their magic.
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