How to clean your walls and ceilings using Cleanz

How often do you think about cleaning the walls and ceilings in your home?  Possibly never?! 

Yet cleaning them can make a huge improvement to your home’s air quality as porous drywall attracts a significant amount of pollutants such as mould, pollens, viruses, bacteria and VOCs (especially fragrance chemicals) to name a few.  And better air means better health and improved immunity for your family.

Now this may seem like a monumental task at first glance, but it can be done incrementally one room at a time, or it can be done as a spring cleaning like project in one go.  

Cleaning the walls and ceilings of your bedrooms alone can make a world of difference in your family’s health as it reduces the chemical and particulate load on the body at night, so that rejuvenation and repair can take place instead of detoxification.   This is especially important if  you have anyone that is not well in the home - make their bedroom a priority.

How to do it.

This task should be undertaken in a step by step fashion to ensure best results and an efficient process

What you’ll need:

• A certified sealed HEPA vacuum* - this type of vacuum guarantees that dust and allergens don’t escape back into the air, thus making air cleaner when you finish vacuuming.
  
• Microfibre stick duster for lights and ceiling fans (if possible)
  
• Cleanz Concentrate and a bottle of Cleanz All-Purpose spray dilution
  
• 2 buckets

• Microfibre cloths
  
• Sponge or microfibre mop
  

Important:  Since every home is different and every paint surface is different, it is important to patch test the cleaning solutions on an inconspicuous area (eg. behind a picture or in a wardrobe) on each room’s painted walls and ceilings to make sure it doesn’t cause streaking or other undesirable results.   Let the test area dry and check if there is any problem before proceeding.  

The Process:

Step 1 - HEPA Vacuuming  

Using your main floor attachment on the brush setting, make three passes over each section of the ceiling (taking care not to damage the surface), overlapping strokes in order to ensure full coverage.  Dust will be dislodged during this process so the order is important as particles will drop down onto surfaces below (so working top to bottom ensures a full clean up).

Move onto walls, again passing the brush over every section of the wall three times, overlapping strokes as you move to the next section.

Continue on to horizontal surfaces below, and include furniture and lamps etc.  Vacuum the floor last.

This step alone makes an enormous difference to your home’s air quality.

*NB If you don’t own a HEPA vacuum, prepare 2 buckets of water as per below in Step 2 and use microfibre cloths to carefully remove as much dust as possible from ceiling and walls by making 3 passes over each section, and rinsing the cloth between each section in the clean water bucket before dipping back into the Cleanz solution.  

Proceed to Step 2

Step 2 - Damp wiping with Cleanz 

After you have HEPA vacuumed the room, prepare a bucket of warm water with 1 teaspoon (5ml) of Cleanz Concentrate per 4 litres of water.  Fill the second bucket with clean warm water for rinsing the cloth between dips. 

Dip your clean microfibre or sponge mop into the Cleanz solution bucket, squeeze out as much water as possible (important, you do not want to saturate your paintwork) and start ‘mopping’ the ceiling, overlapping as you move to the next section to ensure full coverage.  

Rinse your mop in the clean water each time before you put it back in the Cleanz solution bucket, refreshing the clean water as you need to.

*NB: the walls and ceilings should look slightly damp after wiping but not truly wet

Grab your All-Purpose

Next, clean gloss or semi-gloss painted doors, frames, skirting boards and trims, spraying them with Cleanz All-Purpose and wiping clean with a wet microfibre cloth.

Lastly, don’t forget door handles!

Use the All-Purpose spray and a microfibre cloth to thoroughly clean these, removing germs and grime.  The natural surfactants in Cleanz are very effective at binding to germs so they can be removed easily.

It has been proven that soaps like Cleanz disable viruses by dissolving the lipid layer that holds them together.   Removing germs with natural soap rather than ‘killing them’ with disinfectants is the safest cleaning method as it doesn’t create resistant bacteria.

And you’re done! 

How often should you clean your walls and ceilings? 

Once a year is enough to ensure healthier air in your home.  You can incorporate it into your annual spring cleaning or do it bit by bit over a few cleaning sessions.

Is there a particular time of year you should do this?

Choose a time of year when you can comfortably have windows open to help speed up drying time and air your home.

If you or a member of your household is chronically ill or suffers from asthma or allergies, you may want to do this more often.  Likewise if you live in a high dust zone and definitely if you have done any renovations, had pesticides sprayed in the home or had any mould problems.  

If you would like more guidance on a thorough weekly home cleaning routine, you’ll find everything you need here in our 9 step process to efficiently and effectively clean your home.