“One of my least favorite household cleaning chores…Baseboards. You really have to get down on your hands and knees to get this one done. And when you stop and look at all the baseboards you have in the house it seems a bit overwhelming. This article not only shows you to clean them properly but also how to make it not quite so daunting of a task.”
Ed Johnson & Denise Buck – DC Metro Realty Team
You can spend hours washing the floor, dusting the furniture, and vacuuming the nooks and crannies in any given room, but so long as its baseboards are dirty, they are going to attract attention and create an overall impression of shabbiness and neglect. It’s by no means difficult to clean baseboards; this is not one of the great housekeeping challenges that you will face in life. Indeed, the trickiest bit is overcoming inertia. So if you’re actually reading this, the hard part is over!
MATERIALS AND TOOLS
– Vacuum (with brush attachment or duster)
– Sponge
– Dish soap, vinegar, or wood cleaner
– Cotton swabs
– Dryer sheets
Rather than set out to clean the baseboards in every single room of your house all at once, make an agreement with yourself: Each and every time you break out the sponge and plastic gloves, you will clean the baseboards thoroughly in one room only. That way, the task of cleaning baseboards never becomes overwhelming. Also, remember that baseboards accumulate the dust and dirt that housework stirs up. Save the baseboards for last—don’t waste effort cleaning the same thing twice.
STEP 1
Begin the process by removing as much dust and dirt as you can from the area. If your vacuum has a brush attachment, use it to suction along the length of the baseboards, paying special attention to the crevice where the trim meets the floor. In lieu of a vacuum, you can rely on a duster to do a decent job of freeing up debris, which you can then corral and remove with a broom and dustpan.
STEP 2
Once you’ve removed all loose dirt and dust, you can begin to address stains and stuck-on grime. (Particularly in the kitchen, baseboards are the notorious hosts of unidentifiable splatters.) Dip a sponge into a mixture of warm water and dish soap (vinegar works well too), then go about scrubbing any marks that you can find. Note that if the baseboards in the room you are cleaning are stained, not painted, it may be preferable to use a cleaning solution formulated specifically for that application.
STEP 3
As you’re already crouched over cleaning the baseboards, you might as well do as good a job as possible. For those hard-to-reach spots—the crevice between the trim and flooring, for example, or around any imperfections that appear on the wood surface—use a cotton swab dipped in the cleaner.
STEP 4
Protect the baseboards’ newly acquired cleanliness by rubbing them with a fresh dryer sheet. Not only will this leave a fresh laundry scent that lasts a few days, but also—and more importantly—the sheet’s anti-static properties actually repel dust. Perhaps it sounds like overkill, but going this one step further can really pay off.
Unless you live in a fraternity house, you’re unlikely to find that your baseboards need to be cleaned weekly. In the grand scheme of housekeeping, baseboards are rather low maintenance. If you’re like me, you probably notice baseboards only when they are not clean. So if on each occasion that you clean, you live up to the promise of doing the baseboards in one room only, you may never notice them again!
By Bob Vila – originally appearing on BobVila.com