Sometimes, You Just Need More Paint!

So I have recently moved into a new apartment, and have had all of the fun experiences which come with it. One of the big fun things to do is clean the heck out of the old apartment, (who doesn’t want their security deposit back?) So now suddenly you have new questions, like how do you get all those candle drippings off of the carpet, or what the heck were you boiling to get that particular splash stain on this odd section of wall, and how do I remove it, or where the heck did that mess come from, and why did you not notice it before? These things also come up this time of year anyway, It is Imbolc! It is the time of year when nature is cleaning away last year and making way for the new spring. It is only fitting that this is what I should be doing come this holiday! Now we just have to figure out how to deal with the crazy unexpected cleaning that happens to come up. We also need to try and figure out if we even can fix them. Well it is ok, most of these things are fixable, mostly.

So, yes I found this awesome blob of orange candle wax on my carpet, right under where I keep my altar, I imagine I spilled at one time and never bothered to MOVE THE ALTAR and check beneath it. Really, though, by the time you notice you have candle wax on the carpet, let’s face it, you have candle wax on your carpet. If it is still melted try and find something to absorb it DO NOT SCRUB! If you scrub and push the wax, it will end up deeper in your carpet. Just carefully pat it, being careful not to redeposit the wax on new parts of the carpet. The next instinct is to melt the wax out of the carpet, which is one of the most efficient ways to do it, but again NO SCRUBBING! Once the wax is far enough in the carpet, there just is no getting it out, so leave the scrubbie brush behind for this one. Hair dryers are amiable and they get hot and seem like a lovely option for melting that wax, and they are, but it goes very slowly, melt a bit of wax, dab it up, over and over, but it works. Another option and one I like even better involves a paper bag, towel and an iron. Put the towel on the floor next to the stain, or large rag, or whatever you do not mind having a bit of wax on. Then lay the paper bag, cut so it is just 1 layer thick, upon the wax, and set the iron on it, on high and warmed up, do not leave the iron sit there, your carpet is likely made of something which can melt, and it totally will. As you carefully drag the paper out of the iron slowly, and over the towel, you will see that the paper soaks the wax like a sponge. For larger wax deposits you will need more paper, but the concept does not change. Heavily dyed wax may leave a dye residue, but that can often be cared for using an ordinary carpet cleaner. Viola, no more wax carpet.

How you care for the strange wall stains in the kitchen is going to depend a lot upon what you kitchen is walled with, and how best to care for those surfaces. I was lucky, I had an awkward stain on tile, which was nice and shiny, and could ultimately be cleaned with nearly anything. But some stains are nasty and contain grease, and just will not wipe away easily, or even scrub away, and for these you have a few options, soak it in a high chemically concentrated cleaner, or scrub it better. One of the things which works fairly well, and does a lot of the scrubbing for you, is lemon and salt. Yep lemon and salt, just simple table salt works, and half a lemon. Squeeze some of the juice out of your lemon, it is going to be your scrubbie! You dip the open half of lemon in a bowl of salt, get enough salt on there that it is not all going to melt, and scrub your wall! Beware, do not do this with soft paint walls, you will strip the paint! This works best on tiled surfaces. The salt and lemon juice eat away at the stain, and the salt scrubs, and gets into the grout where you need friction to scrub. Lemon juice is acidic and will mildly bleach some surfaces, so this is not the tool for dyed grouts. But my white tile and grout, suddenly looked white again. This works well on bathroom tile too, but will not properly remove mold, but that stuff just will not die, the best plan with that is start hammering at it as soon as you notice it, never let mold build up.

The strange mess was another problem entirely. A can of soda had been spilled in the bedroom, down behind a bookshelf, and well hidden. The walls were painted with a porous matte paint, which is more than a little difficult to clean. The trouble was, when the soda was spilled, no one moved the bookshelf, or bothered telling me that there was a mess. So this stain had the advantage of who knows how long to seep into the wall. I tried everything I could think of, I even mixed chemicals with the intention of stripping a layer of paint off of the wall. It was no good folks. The dark icky liquid had seeped in all the way, stained the paint, and was not going to release my wall. Soda is evil, I know doctors and dentists say it, about your health, but nobody listens to them. But soda will absolutely ruin a painted wall, clean it while it is fresh. Do not give it the chance to surprise you and force you to repaint your wall, which is what the ultimate solution was, paint match, and use an ultra-thin layer of paint to hide the stain, this worked ok because I had already taken a layer of paint off of the wall, so there was space to put a new layer.

Moving can be a challenge, but there are all sorts of simple ways to clean and repair all sorts of things. Don’t let the crazy stuff get you down, there is always a solution, even if it is not what you were expecting. Now I am moved in and living under a pile of boxes, until I manage to unpack them all. Just keep in mind that most messes are easiest to clean early, even for the most industrious little witch, and regardless of what you have in your arsenal, sometimes, you just need more paint.