Washing the walls

katiewhompus · April 2010

I'm doing a lot of reading on "first time buying a house" and one thing most websites recommend is taking a day to thoroughly clean the house, including washing all of the wals. They then suggest washing all of the walls in your house at least 4 times a year.....

I think I've washed a wall once in my life, when I lived with my ex bf. We lived in his grandmothers basements and they entire place smelled like nicotine. I started washing the walls to see if that helped, and realized that the sandy colored walls were actually white...the sand was 10 years of pipe smoke build up. EW!

So how often do you wash your walls? Do you wash different ones with different frequencies (such as bathroom, kitchen, living room, etc)

Nebb · April 2010

I wash kitchen and bathroom walls/tile when necessary, but normal walls never. I clean doors because all of them have wooden inlay type of stuff that gets dusty/dirty looking but thats really it.

laurenclaire1386 · April 2010

The only walls that ever get dirty enough for me to wash are the kitchen walls. I don't notice the other ones getting stuff on them. Honestly, I didn't know til this thread that people washed walls.

julezlee · April 2010

I'll spot wash any walls that get stuff on them especially in the bathroom or kitchen but I've never done a full wall wash. Sounds like no fun at all.

JessAndTrav · April 2010

I take the vacuum or swiffer to a wall in our bedroom because I always see dust on it, but I've never gotten the water and soap out.

tenofcups4me · April 2010

When we moved into this house, I washed the walls around the tub, sponged down the rest of the bathroom walls a little later, and sponged down the cabinet doors and insides of the cabinets in the kitchen. I didn't wash the kitchen walls till much later when I was getting ready to paint them. I never washed any of the other walls, especially since they've all been/are going to be painted at some point.
On a regular basis? I occasionally sponge down bathroom walls, but that's it.

Oh and I do run the vacuum hose across the baseboards once in a while since dust accumulates there, but not every time.

jajph1974 · April 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_washing-walls?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:b1845ffc-858a-461f-a2e1-56d68a023010Post:29e47cbd-ee32-4028-9f56-2720e4c284a5">Re: Washing the walls</a>:
[QUOTE]I wash kitchen and bathroom walls/tile when necessary, but normal walls never. I clean doors because all of them have wooden inlay type of stuff that gets dusty/dirty looking but thats really it.
Posted by Nebb[/QUOTE]

This is also what I do.

I've washed smudges off of the walls before but it also takes off some of the paint, so I only do when I absolutely have to,

Nebb · April 2010

I can see it making sense to wash all the walls and clean thoroughly when moving into a house, I wouldnt want to live in someone elses filth either.

luckyme502 · April 2010

Except for bathroom and kitchen and spot cleaning other walls, I have never cleaned all the walls in my house. It seems like unnecessary work to me.

katiewhompus · April 2010

Oh good, so I'm not crazy slob who doesn't wash walls

I feel much more normal now.

We're repainting 90% of the walls, would you suggest washing before painting or just paint over? There's no obvious dirt or grime or anything.

jajph1974 · April 2010

Just paint over them. It'll be fine

lauralaur · April 2010

I'd wash before painting, although that's quite the task. I'd definitely wash bathroom walls before painting since hair/whatever might be on the walls. I'm just remembering a time I painted apartments for a community service day and nothing was cleaned ahead of time and I ended up painting hair/other gross stuff right onto the walls.

I usually only wash the walls around the kitchen trash can and in the bathroom.

smokeybailey · April 2010

For those recommending the wash of the walls, are your walls textured? It is a mighty pain in the @SS to clean textured walls. IMHO.

brookelynpaisley · April 2010

I spot clean. I've never gone around washing all my walls. I'm really glad to know I'm not the only one.

Catwoman708 · April 2010

I hardly ever wash the walls. If you live with a smoker or have a wood burning fireplace, you have to wash the whole surface area or you'll end up with noticeable differnces in color, or streak marks.

I dust or sweep the walls once or twice a year, to get the cobwebs and dust off. Then I wipe the white doors, doorframes, and baseboards with a Mr. Clean MAGIC ERASER. Those things are great!

Washing the walls

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