When it comes to cleaning, there’s one aspect that we usually overlook. We work through our checklists for each room but then forget about the most visible areas: The walls!
Walls are high-traffic areas that everyone uses and abuses in your home. Walls in our mudrooms or passageways are generally the worst. Multi-purpose rooms would be a close second, and rounding out in third place is Every. Damn. Hallway!
If you have kids, you know that every wall of the house has at least one handprint, and surely the odd footprint. Homes with no kids still get grease and dirt buildup, while pet-friendly homes will have drool, hair, and other unspeakable messes.
Need I say more? Keep reading if you want the dirt on spotless walls, the @GoCleanCo way.
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Step 1 – Take Notice
You should get in the habit of addressing the walls every time you clean a room. Here are some things to know as you observe (in horror) just how dirty your walls are:
- Our method is still to always deal with one room at a time, but take notice of the walls and door frames in that room.
- The most noticeable spots will be mid-wall, from dirty little kid hands.
- Liquid splashes always find a way to dribble down walls, especially in bathrooms.
- Make sure to move furniture away from your walls. When you do this you will often notice a line on your wall, where the couch or piece of furniture was sitting.
- Body oils stick to furniture like glue and will then transfer to your walls.
Step 2 – Hot Water And Powdered Tide®
Okay, if you’re in the #cleaningarmy, then you’ve got plenty of powdered Tide® on deck. We’re going to use just a pinch of it to get those walls looking fresh and clean. Here’s what you do:
- Fill a bucket with hot water and a teaspoon of powdered Tide®. A sink works in a pinch, but portability will make this job easier as you work your way around the house. (Tide is a degreaser and will lift the grime from your walls.) Make sure to swap out the water and powdered Tide® mixture whenever the water is dirty.
- Microfibre is the best type of cloth to clean with because it lifts and holds dirt, grease, and grime. (Pro Tip: Make sure not to wash your microfibre cloths with fabric softener or dryer sheets. Ideally you can do a quick load of just cloths. We love Grab-A-Rags® for big messes.)
- Use plenty of elbow Grease! Get after it, but be careful. Scrubbing too long and too hard on a painted wall can cause paint to fade or take it off entirely. Don’t use a mop for this or you will need to go over the area again with a damp cloth to pick up lint and hair. (We have tried this and it just doesn’t do the job right!)
Step 3 – Scuffs CAN Come Out
When you first glance at your walls, you’ll start seeing scratches and scuffs that you never paid attention to. But don’t start screaming at those messy rugrats just yet. Scuffs can and will come out.
Bar Keepers Friend® (our fav) and a damp microfibre cloth will buff out most surface scratches on most walls, even Sharpie Picasso drawings. You will need to rinse these areas with water to get the residue off. Always do a test patch in an inconspicuous area if you are concerned about your coloured walls. And again, scrubbing too hard could take the paint off, so be gentle yet diligent.
Step 4 – Light Switches Are Nasty
Fingers touch light switches on a daily basis. Yet they rarely (if ever) get properly cleaned. Neutralize these germ hot spots by adding in some bleach when you clean. Just be careful not to drip bleach on your carpets!
Step 5 – Look Up!
We always teach our new cleaners to look up.. It may be a new habit to form, but it’s essential. Dust accumulates not just at eye level. The tops of door frames and pictures gather dust, too. Make sure you’re hitting these areas with a dust wand or cloth.
The entire house will seem substantially cleaner after you’ve cleaned your walls. The first time you do this, it may be a big job, but if you work it into your regular checklist, you won’t have to do your entire walls every time. Spot treatment may be all that is necessary. You’ll be surprised how much lifts off your shoulders when the walls around you are free of dirt and grime.
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– Katie W @ GoCleanCo
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gocleanco
Sep 22
It’s Kitchen week of the Fall Cleaning Challenge and I can finally share my new kitchen sink from BLANCO that everyone has been asking about. I am very excited to be working with @blancoamerica1 they are THE kitchen experts and a global brand with over 95 years of experience. Head to my stories to see how I care for this beauty on the daily and how easy it is to treat stains. BLANCO is more than just sinks; they also have faucets and organizational systems (like the BOTTON) that work together as an integrated UNIT. #ad
gocleanco
Sep 19
We kicked off the Fall Cleaning Challenge by flying to Burnaby, British Columbia and cleaning our Spring Cleaning Challenge (2023) winners house! We had so much fun doing this clean. Lots of team work, planning and love was poured into this project! Getting cheered on by you folks makes it all worth it! Being able to pay our good fortune forward to our followers makes us all warm and fuzzy. Big thanks to our brand partners who generously hooked us up with so much gifted stuff for the winner. We all need to go nap for 3 days now 😂 Did you enter the Fall Cleaning Challenge so that this can be you Spring 2024?! Link in our bio or head to our website to enter. #cleaning Special thanks to @ruggable @bollandbranch @oceansalesltd @proctergamble @amazoninfluencerprogram 💕
gocleanco
Sep 15
Want to open your front door and see our smiling faces coming to clean your house? Then you better get over to bleachpraylove.com on Monday, September 18th and join the Fall Cleaning Challenge! That’s right, the Grand Prize is a house clean by yours truly and my crew. We fly to you and give your house a top to bottom clean like only we can. How does the Fall Cleaning Challenge work? Each week for four weeks follow along and clean your house with me! Plus we have soooo cool many prizes! Each week we will be giving away some of my favorite things like @bollandbranch @ruggable @sharkbeauty blow dryers, and my personal fav cold hard 💰 to help you catch up on bills, buy a new vacuum or hire someone to help you with your looming House Work if you can’t get caught up! If you want to see more of our adventure at the Spring Cleaning Challenge winners house stay tuned in stories for the next few days PLUS we are filming it all for YouTube and you can watch it all the behind the scenes dirty laundry…The good, the bad…the filthy. Love you folks. For reals. 💕 Thank you for making our job so fun! #cleaningmotivation
gocleanco
Aug 25
No visit from @hellohairhouse is complete without a kitchen haircut! #fallhairtrends
gocleanco
Aug 24
The Fall Cleaning Challenge starts on Monday Sept 18th, 2023. Y’all ready? The download will be available on September 18th and the grand prize is a house clean by yours truly! We also have some new vacuum testing coming your way 😈 My garage is FULL of suckers baby and I’m not mad about it. #fallcleaning
gocleanco
Aug 19
Update: It’s a damn ice box in here and I’ve been sleeping like a baby. #airconditioning
gocleanco
Aug 8
Perfect example that cleaning 👏🏻 is 👏🏻 home 👏🏻 maintenance 👏🏻 Take care of your stuff and it will last longer. This little handy-dandy-doo-dad scrubber is linked in my Amazon Storefront. #cleaningtips
gocleanco
Aug 3
Had fun in the angels’ city chasing fortune and fame 😎 Thanks @amazoninfluencerprogram for #hosting me. And no I didn’t get tickets to any shows this weekend but for the rest of you—take the moment and taste it. 🫶🏼
gocleanco
Jul 19
To the Salon!!!!!! (Or in this case, the laundry room.) Saved these fabulous scuffed up pumps with some @tidelaundrystainremover a cloth and some patience. Just in time for @barbiethemovie premiere! Have fun @lauren_lally always happy to be of service 🫡 #barbiethemovie
gocleanco
Jul 12
Bathroom organization top picks! Everything is in my storefront to 🛍️ #amazonfinds
gocleanco
Jul 11
Summer is here! Clean up your space so you actually want to hangout in it. That hot tub…it’s not mine…k🤦🏼♀️ Link in bio for these products, some are on sale for Prime Day, just check the albums for your country.
gocleanco
Jul 11
Robot Vacuum Fight Club! 💪🏻 Things we threw on the floor: Shreddies, Powdered Tide, (clean) Cat Litter, A crumbled up loaf of sourdough and good old dirt! Stay tuned for the results. 🧐 #thiswasmorefunthaniexpected
gocleanco
Jul 8
Spent my morning making a very aesthetically pleasing Raspberry Pie Reel for y’all but it ended up being a Raspberry Scramble 🥴💀 Wasn’t gonna post it BUT when life feels like a scramble it can still be delicious. 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼 Please consider this my official petition to bring @jello back as a dessert staple.
gocleanco
Jul 7
Shower tracked destroyed with built up hard water minerals? Here’s an easy solution with a simple house hold ingredient and elbow grease. Still gonna take some scrubbing friends, good results take work. #cleaningtips
gocleanco
Jul 6
Is pressure washing considered a form of therapy? Asking for a friend. #backupvocalsduuuuuuuuupe
gocleanco
Jun 29
Years in the making…it’s FINALLY here…and it’s a masterpiece. Over the years I have received thousands of DM’s asking what to pick when renovating your home. What is the easiest to clean? What will survive the test of time? So I compiled it all here in our Home Renovation Guide. Apologies for taking so long but we kept adding and it kept getting longer and longer. This has been a labour of love. Link in bio to purchase or tap to shop! #itsbeenalongtimecoming
gocleanco
Jun 21
Sounds like a lot of you have slime problems. Here’s how we got it out! Sprinkle baking soda on the slime and smush it down into the carpet fibres so it gets in deep. Add straight vinegar and let it sit for about 30 mins. Scrub it with a brush. Repeat until it’s gone! When you repeat, you need to let it sit each time for 30 mins so it starts to break down the slime. We scrubbed for 30 mins too, don’t give up! Think about how expensive the damn carpet is to replace and that will give you lots of energy! As always: It is a good idea to test an inconspicuous spot first (like in a closet) before try you so this because all carpets are different. Try at your own risk but also if you have dried slime all over your carpet I think you are screwed anyways. GOOD LUCK and report back. #slime #slimetoturial
gocleanco
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I’m a simple creature. Here’s the haul I promised from the viral sweater set. Yellow usually isn’t my colour but I’m feeling it the most! Wearing a medium, it’s machine washable but I have been laying it flat to dry. Everything is linked in my bio and up in my stories. #amazonfinds
gocleanco
Jun 17
If you thought I was going to miss an opportunity to use this bop, you were wrong. Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there, reminder that a clean tractor is a sexy tractor. @kubotacanada if you wanna detail this thing next year LMK. 🚜 🧽 🫧😎
gocleanco
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5 days left to get in that spring clean!! 😂💪🏻 Here’s a round up of all the stuff we’ve cleaned with @mrclean if you need some inspiration! It’s been quite the journey 😵💫🤢What else do y’all use @mrclean for? #mrcleanpartner #sponsored