After having taken care of our kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms we will look at walls as a separate entity. Kitchen and bathroom walls are always sparkling clean as they are attended to daily as part of our cleaning routine for these very important rooms in the lives of our families.
Walls are often ignored and it is not unusual to see an otherwise lovely home, sparkling floors beautiful appointments only to be marred by dirty walls. Caring for your walls will make your paint work last longer and save you redecorating unnecessarily.
Children should be taught at an early age to refrain from touching walls with grubby little hands and certainly no artistic expression or writing on walls. Give them lots of scrap paper instead! Before cleaning walls collect all your requirements, where walls are very high you may need a step ladder and someone to hold the ladder for you. Start by removing pictures, mirrors, light fittings etc.
Clean and dust these fixtures first and ensure that you place them in a safe place and out of reach of children and animals.
Use a broom whose bristles are covered with mutton cloth that is well-secured. Sweep the walls and corners well, taking care to remove cobwebs from cornices and dust from pelmets. Remove all dust collecting on the skirting board using a handy banister brush. Sweep the floor and ensure that there is no debris on the floor. Move all furniture away from the wall to give you easy access. Walls are usually dirtier where they come into contact with people touching them. You therefore find that it may not be necessary to go higher than just above your head. Surfaces higher than this will only need dusting.
Mix the following — one cup ammonia, a popular ammonia- based non-abrasive creamy liquid available at your local supermarket will do, half cup white vinegar, ¼ cup baking soda and five litres water. The acid in vinegar kills germs, bacteria and mould and dissolves stains.
As with all household cleaning, wear gloves to protect your hands. Take care to start from the top going down. Clean the wall with the solution and then rinse off with clean water. Most household grime will come off easily without harsh scrubbing and removing the paint on your walls. Once the walls are clean, pictures light fittings and ornaments may be replaced after cleaning and removing dust.
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A damp cloth rinsed out in clean water until almost dry is the best method for cleaning pictures and light fittings. Where the paintings are not protected by glass a light dusting with a feather duster will suffice.
Now that it’s winter and we are lighting up our fire places, we may indeed have smoky walls, you will find that this solution of white vinegar will not only clean your walls but will also go a long way in eliminating the smell of smoke.
Clean windows speak well of the owner of the house
Windows are like the eyes to our homes and say a lot about what is within. To clean windows, dust with a dry cloth first. Make a mixture of one tablespoon white vinegar to five litres of warm water.
Vinegar does not leave any streaks and will give you a clear sparkling result without much elbow grease. If the windows are high please ensure that you are on a secure footing.
Start at the top left hand corner moving across in a horizontal line. Moving from the top to the bottom. The cloth must be sufficiently damp and not dripping wet.
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