The dreaded spring cleaning is upon us. As I was getting ready to wash my walls and ceilings, I was looking for a wall cleaner that would keep me safe from two things:
- A wall cleaner that didn’t fill my house with unnecessary chemicals
- A wall cleaner that wouldn’t damage the paint on my walls.
This homemade wall cleaner was the answer for both of those issues!
Plus, let me tell you… we have two large dogs. Both of our dogs love to play in anything dirty which somehow all their slime and dirt ends up on my walls. Somehow… I honestly don’t know how so much gets on our walls. It’s disgusting. This cleaner EASILY washed all their grime off our walls.
Every week I usually take a Mr. Clean eraser and spot wash all my walls. I usually have to scrub those dog marks off my wall and sometimes it takes a little paint off the wall with it.
This wall cleaner was so gentle on my walls and so easy to make, I may have to switch to it permanently for my weekly touch ups.
WALL CLEANER RECIPE
Let me first note; this wall cleaner does NOT make your house smell like vinegar. Whenever I mention I use vinegar in a cleaner, people always ask me about the smell. I get it, I don’t want my house to smell like vinegar. I cleaned my walls with the windows closed and never smelled vinegar.
RECIPE
White Vinegar– 1 Tablespoon
Dish Soap– 1 Tablespoon
Water
I’m going to be honest; I didn’t measure. I totally guesstimated on all the measurements and it worked perfectly fine.
But, if you’re one of those people that needs measurements (I totally get it), then I would say the measurements above are pretty accurate to what I used.
As far as water goes, I just filled a dishpan (or some might call it a sink basin) about ¾ of the way full. I added the vinegar and dish soap to the water while it was filling up so I didn’t have to stir it or anything.
PREPPING THE WALLS
First things first, remove everything off your walls that you can. This isn’t necessary, but I was wanting a deep clean on our walls so I removed everything that was hanging and even took down all the curtains and threw them in the washing machine.
Do not skip this next part! If I could give you any tip from my experience, it would be to dust your walls first. You might be thinking, “they don’t look too bad. I could skip this part.”
Well, that was me. The lazy part in my brain was like, “I have too much stuff to get done to bother with that.” I didn’t even finish one wall when I realized that that was a big mistake. All the dust collected on my microfiber cloth and just spread around no matter how many times I cleaned it off in the water mixture.
Learning my lesson, I stopped and dusted all the walls and it honestly didn’t take long at all. I used something similar to this and it made the process to much easier! I also found this duster that would work great if you have tall ceilings or ceiling fans.
WASHING THE WALLS
I used a microfiber cloth to wash the walls. They’re gentle on the walls and when I scrubbed at a mark that didn’t want to wipe away, it didn’t take off any paint.
Flat paint (which is what we have on our walls) tends to be a little more sensitive to cleaners and scrubbing. I had ZERO issues with this wall cleaner and using the microfiber cloth.
When you clean the walls, start in one section and work your way around. You mostly just have to wipe gently unless you find a spot that needs scrubbing. I carried a Mr. Clean eraser around with me in case I needed to scrub anything off, but there was no need for it.
I have a dry and wet Swiffer mop that I used for the ceilings. I put on a dry Swiffer sheet and dipped the Swiffer mop into my wall cleaner mixture and then tapped it on a towel to stop it from dripping everywhere. This made it so much easier to reach the ceilings.
Swiffer tip: if you don’t have any Swiffer cleaning sheets, then you can easily use a paper towel or a rag instead.
CONCLUSION
Make spring cleaning fun! Blast some music. Have a dance party! Cleaning can be fun, I promise.
This homemade vinegar wall cleaner is so easy to make, inexpensive and will make your spring cleaning so much easier. Remember, it does not make your house smell like vinegar, it is gentle on your painted walls, it isn’t filled with chemicals and don’t forget to dust first!
Do you have a homemade cleaner you love? I’d love to hear about it! Drop it in the comments below or email me at theresourcefulhomemaker@gmail.com. I always love to chat with new friends!
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