As we continue to understand how to live and thrive in this unprecedented era of the pandemic, our interactions with our near and dear ones have been cut down drastically. The last thing you want during these precious, limited interactions is to have your guests be greeted with stained or grimy walls. Luckily, there’s a few things you can do by taking the DIY approach to rid your home and the walls from unwanted blemishes. In this article, we’ll explore some of the useful DIY tips for removing stains from your walls.
Cleaning your painted walls is a rather big job and so, preparation is key to its success. Ensure you push all your furniture to the centre of the room to avoid any damage. Make sure you lay out old sheets to catch any soapy drips. We suggest you avoid plastic tarps as they do not absorb water and become extremely slippery. Another handy tip is to use a small piece of sponge to cover all the picture nails. This will protect your hands as well as remind you where the pictures belong.
The next thing you need to do is assemble all the washing tools dusters, cleaning cloths, sponges (avoid coloured sponges as they could leave coloured stains on light-coloured walls) and two buckets (one filled with a cleaning solution and the other with clear water for rinsing). You’ll also need a pair of rubber gloves to protect your hands. Lastly, depending on the height of your walls, you may or may not need a step stool or ladder.
Our suggestion on how to get a highly effective cleaning solution is:
- Stir 1 teaspoon of liquid dish detergent into warm water.
- Add 1/4 teaspoon of white or apple cider vinegar
- Let the solution sit on the stain for 10 minutes before blotting
For less dense stains we suggest you mix ¼ teaspoon of soap in a cup of warm water and wipe. Rinse it off with clean water and keep blotting until completely dry.
Now let’s get into how you can tackle various kinds of stains – be it dirt and grime to ink and crayons. So here goes…
Dirt and Grime
Our skin contains oils and that oil tends to get onto our walls and doors over time. To tackle this, a wall eraser is the best and most effective method. You can easily find a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser on Amazon that will wipe away these stains with ease. Here’s a link for your reference.
Just remember to wet the sponge and rub gently to avoid taking off bits of paint along with the stain.
You can also make your own homemade wall cleaning sponge by using the following ingredients:
- 1 cup ammonia,
- 1/2 cup white distilled or apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup baking soda
- 3 litres of warm water
Wipe the solution over walls with a sponge and then rinse with water.
Crayons
Wall erasers usually do the trick when it comes to crayon marks. However, if they don’t here’s what we suggest:
- Rub the stains with a non gel based toothpaste.
- Then rub a pencil eraser in a circular motion.
- After which, you must wipe those same marks with baby wipes.
- Finally, sprinkle some baking soda on a damp sponge and scrub the marks thorogholy.
Permanent Marker
Not surprisingly, permanent markers are difficult to remove. What you could try is soaking a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol and dab the stain repeatedly. This is your best bet!
Ink Stains
Well, if you’re lucky the stain will be with ballpoint ink. Since ballpoint ink is oil-based, it oftens melts away if you use foaming shaving cream or other dry-solvents like nailpolish remover.
Make sure you open windows when using cleaning solvents and polish remover.
Mildew
In order to remove a fungus like mildew off your walls, spray it with vinegar water with the ratio being 1 table of vinegar to ¼ litre of water.
Water Stains
First, you must solve the problem that caused the water stain in the first place. Once that’s done, rinse the water stains using a solution that’s made up of 1 cup of bleach to 3 litres of water. This will prevent the growth of any kind of fungus such as Mildew. You must then use a hairdryer until the patch is completely dry.
This was our comprehensive guide of DIY methods to remove various kinds of stains from your walls. However, if you do not want to go down the DIY route, we at Aapkapainter are always just a phone call away for your home cleaning!. So whether you want a basic repaint job done or an entire revamp of your home, we’re here for you.