How to get crayon and pen markings off your walls
Those of you who have kids, or have ever had to watch kids, know that a mere tiny piece of paper is very rarely a large enough canvas to contain their creative energy and abilities. Far too often, kids decide that your walls are the best place for them to draw their masterpieces. If you come around your hallway corner and see that your five year old has attempted to recreate the Mona Lisa on your nice white wall, don't despair, and don't kill your kid. It's actually a lot easier to get crayon and pen markings off your walls than you think that it is. Hold off on the year-long grounding until your kids are teenagers and they really start causing trouble.
How to get crayon and pen markings off your walls
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There are a number of different ways that you can get crayon and pen markings off of your walls. Here's one way that will work for you just about every time.
Materials needed:
- dishwashing liquid
- cleaning cloths
- lighter fluid
- an iron
- soap-base crayons
- sponges
- spot remover
- liquid cleansers
- old toothbrushes
- a couple rolls of paper towels
After you have gathered all of the materials that are needed, then it's time to attack your child's artistic masterpiece.
- Begin by spraying the area with either lighter fluid or a commercial spot remover solvent.
- After you have sprayed the area with either lighter fluid or a commercial spot remover solvent, then you need to brush the area gently with an old, but clean, toothbrush.
- Now take a cleaning cloth and carefully blot-do not scrub-away the remains of the crayon or the pen.
- If there are any more traces of either crayon or pen on your wall or any lighter fluid left on the wall, then you can spray the wall with a liquid cleanser and wipe off all of the other residue.
Other tactics for cleaning your walls
There are a number of other tactics for cleaning your walls, if the above steps don't work.
- If you have crayon or pen on wallpaper, make sure that you test the above method on a hidden part of your wall to make sure that you don't ruin the color of your wallpaper by using either the lighter fluid or the liquid cleanser. If you have vinyl wallpaper, then you sho8uld use a gentle dishwashing liquid and a sponge in order to remove the crayon or the pen from your wall.
- If the above method doesn't really work, or if you can't use it on your wallpaper, then a good idea for you to try is to take a number of white paper towels. Then hold the paper towels over the area, and press the paper into the wall with a warm (not a hot!) iron. The crayon or pen marks will be absorbed by the warm towels.
- Another good idea is to use a blow dryer to melt the crayon wax on the wall. Then you can just use an all-purpose cleanser and a sponge to wipe off the crayon wax.
- If you have some Soft Scrub, then you should try applying that on the wall.
- Another great and much more natural approach is the time tested method of using baking soda. Put baking soda on the crayon, and then scrub it with a toothbrush dipped in water.
