How to Clean Wallpaper

You need to clean wallpaper from time to time, no matter what your living situation is. Children love to color the walls, tomato sauce can splash onto the walls while you cook and pets may urinate on the walls until they’re trained. Knowing how to clean your wallpaper is important, so that you can act quickly and don’t do anything that will damage it in the cleaning process. Here’s what you do:

Scrub Lightly

Don’t use a lot of force when scrubbing wallpaper, to avoid ripping it. Scrub lightly, covering the area slowly. This takes time, but your patience in this matter is worth saving the wallpaper. If you rip the wallpaper, you’ll have to worry about hanging up new wallpaper to cover up that section.

Don’t Scrub with Abrasive Pads

The worst way to clean wallpaper is to take a cheap sponge with an abrasive pad on one side and scrub the walls. You’ll damage the paper at some point. It’s a harsh way to clean it, which could cause colors and patterns to fade. Some pads also leave behind a bluish/greenish residue on wallpaper, which is unattractive.

Do Use a Soft Cloth

Instead of an abrasive pad, use a soft cloth instead. If you don’t need to scrub a lot, then a micro fiber towel is best. A sponge could work, as long as it’s one that’s soft. If you don’t have any of these on hand, use a wash cloth.

Don’t Use Chemical Cleaners

If you use the right cloth, but the wrong cleaners, you can end up with wallpaper that’s ruined. Household cleaners that are full of chemicals can have the same effects as using abrasive pads. They’re also toxic to your apartment environment and you should do what you can to eliminate the use of them in your home.

Do Use Mild Cleaners

You can clean wallpaper effectively with mild soaps or homemade cleaners that are free of chemicals. For example, try adding one part borax to one-half part white distilled vinegar, both of which you can find in any supermarket. There are also mild liquid detergents that you can purchase at stores, such as Dawn Pure Essentials. If you make your own bar soap, let it soak for a short time in a small pan of water and use the water to scrub the walls. Any of these options are superior to using harsh chemical cleaners that can destroy your wallpaper and negatively impact the air quality in your apartment.

To avoid losing the wallpaper to water damage, use only enough water to clean the walls, and not one drop more. It’s hard to say what that would be, because each cleaning job is different. Use less water than you think you need when you clean your wallpaper, and only add a little bit more at a time if you need to. Have a dry cloth handy to dry the wallpaper when you’ve done a sizable section, so that the water doesn’t soak into the wallpaper.