Clean Up and Loose ends

Cleaning up and loose ends are tasks that I always drag my feet on, but it must be done. Spackle residue lingered for weeks to months after we did our kitchen, so I wanted to be sure I got everything this time in after we were done with the dining room. I got on a ladder and wiped all the dust from the top of the window and door trim. I vacuumned over and over again because spackle or plaster would keep appearing. Then I got a mop to clean the walls off.


From ShopRite, this mop was extra wide which made cleaning up a lot faster because I was able to get a large area at once. The pad is disposable and washable, so after I cleaned the walls I used it to clean the floors. To clean linoleum floors, use water and a little bit of Ivory soap (from This Old House).


See the white residue left on the walls from the plaster that fell from the ceiling and sanding the spackle. That is everywhere!


Damp the mop just a bit and just wipe down the walls and all the trim.


For all of you who thought I was just be paranoid, look at all the dirt from the walls alone.


Tadaaaa! Clean and beoootiful.

Also, there was drips of paint or spackle on the floor which I scraped up with a spackle knife.(obviously, do not do this if you have hardwood floors!) Paint is water soluable so a wet rag should do it but for more stubborn drips, you can use a spackle knife.

Next: Changing out all the old outlets in the room. I have selected the new floors for the house but that will be a future project. Since all the tools are out, I'm thinking of finally putting up the faux paneling. That will take some planning since all our walls are different lengths.