When it’s time to deep clean your home, you’ll be faced with lots of big tasks that you don’t do very frequently. Since these tasks aren’t part of your usual cleaning routine, you might find yourself uncertain of how to handle them.
One cleaning task that most people aren’t sure about: cleaning their baseboards.
When doing your standard maintenance cleanings, it’s likely that you skip right over the baseboards. They’re not a priority for most people when trying to keep a livable clean home and leaving them until you’re ready to deep clean the house won’t harm anything or anyone. They’re not areas that harbor particularly dangerous germs or anything.
But because baseboards aren’t cleaned often, they do tend to get quite dirty and dusty. They can also get scuffed from shoes or become filled with pet hair. So, how do you remove months or even years’ worth of dust, dirt, scuffs, and hair from your baseboards?
We’ve put together the ultimate guide on how to clean your baseboards. Read below for everything you need to know to get professional-level results next time you tackle your baseboards.
Equipment and Supplies
There are a few things you’ll need to make sure that you get the best results when cleaning your baseboards. A few of the items are optional depending on your chosen method, but in general you will need:
- Vacuum with brush attachment
- Magic eraser (optional)
- Microfiber cloth or sponge
- Cotton swabs
- Bucket
- All-purpose cleaner
- Dish soap
- Mineral oil or wood treatment oil (for wooden baseboards)
- White vinegar (for PVC baseboards)
- Swiffer (optional)
- Dryer sheets (optional)
Once you have all of these things, you’re ready to get started on making those baseboards sparkle!
How To Prepare The Baseboards For Cleaning
The first step in cleaning your baseboards is to prep them for easy cleaning. Have a friend or family member help you move furniture away from the walls for easy access to your baseboards. Then, remove as much dry and loose dust, dirt, and hair as possible using a vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment. This will make it easier to remove the remaining stuck on grime without causing a muddy solution from your cleaning solution.
Although it can be tempting to skip this step, don’t! No matter which method you choose to clean your baseboards, prepping them with a quick vacuum will make it much easier.
Cleaning with a Magic Eraser
Perhaps the easiest way to clean your baseboards is to use a magic eraser.
Step 1. Prep your baseboards by moving furniture and vacuuming.
Step 2. Fill your bucket with warm water and mix with a few drops of dish soap.
Step 3. Dip your magic eraser into the solution, then wring out until only damp.
Step 4. Simply wipe your baseboards.
Step 5. Rinse your magic eraser when it starts to look dirty, then continue wiping.
It’s that simple!
This method works well on lightly soiled baseboards that aren’t very scuffed. For more heavily soiled baseboards, you may need to use a little more elbow grease or turn to another method.
Using Dryer Sheets to Repel Dirt and Dust
Some people like to use dryer sheets to clean their baseboards. Dryer sheets attract dust when wiping and leave behind a dirt and dust repelling coating, meaning your baseboards stay cleaner for longer.
Step 1. Prep your baseboards by moving furniture and vacuuming.
Step 2. Stick a dryer sheet on a Swiffer.
Step 3. Wipe along your baseboards.
That’s it! Now, this dryer sheet method will not remove tough stains or scuff marks, and it probably won’t be sufficient for heavily soiled baseboards, either. But it can help in keeping your baseboards sparkling long after you’ve cleaned them, so you may want to do this after another cleaning method once your baseboards have dried.
Scrub with Dish Soap
The most tried-and-true method for cleaning grimy baseboards is to use a solution of dish soap and warm water and scrub using a microfiber cloth or sponge. Use the steps below to make your baseboards sparkle:
Step 1. Prep your baseboards by moving furniture and vacuuming.
Step 2. Fill your bucket with warm water and mix with a few drops of dish soap.
Step 3. Dip your microfiber cloth or sponge into the solution, then wring out until only damp. A dripping cloth could ruin your floors and make cleaning more difficult.
Step 4. Gently scrub your baseboards.
Step 5. Rinse your cloth or sponge when it starts to look dirty, then continue. Change your cleaning water if it starts to look murky.
Step 6. Dip cotton swabs into your cleaning solution and clean corners, edges, and any details.
Step 7. If any scuff marks or other stains remain, use some all-purpose cleaner to help remove them.
Step 8. Rinse soap residue away with a clean damp cloth.
Step 9. Allow your baseboards to dry completely before moving your furniture back into place.
Pro tip: You can stick your cloth on a Swiffer so you don’t have to bend down to clean your baseboards unless there’s a tough stain to remove!
Cleaning Painted Baseboards
The most common type of baseboards in modern homes are painted baseboards. If you’ve got painted baseboards in your home, simply follow one of the methods above, being careful not to scrub too harshly. Scrubbing too hard could scratch the paint.
Cleaning Wooden Baseboards
If you have wooden baseboards which have only been stained, you’ll need to take a few precautions so that you don’t damage them. It’s important not to get your baseboards too wet or else they could become discolored or warp, but you also need to keep them from getting too dry. Confusing? Not to worry – you can easily handle this with a bit of mineral oil.
Step 1. Prep your baseboards by moving furniture and vacuuming.
Step 2. Fill your bucket with warm water, a few drops of dish soap, and 1 tbsp mineral oil.
Step 3. Dip your microfiber cloth or sponge into the solution, being careful to wring it out thoroughly. Too much water will damage your baseboards.
Step 4. Wipe your baseboards until clean.
Step 5. Dip cotton swabs into your cleaning solution and clean corners, edges, and any details.
Step 6. Using a new cloth with plain water, wipe baseboards to remove soap residue.
Step 7. Buff with a dry cloth to remove any excess water.
The key with your wooden baseboards is to carefully control how much water you’re using to clean them. The mineral oil will stay behind to lock in moisture and condition the wood.
Cleaning PVC Baseboards
If your baseboards are made of PVC, you may want to use a mixture of water and vinegar to keep them sparkling white. The natural disinfecting properties of vinegar make for a great natural cleaner with non-porous surfaces like PVC. If you’re worried about a lingering vinegar smell, don’t be – it will dissipate after a few hours.
Step 1. Prep your baseboards by moving furniture and vacuuming.
Step 2. Fill your bucket with 4 parts warm water and 1 part white vinegar.
Step 3. Dip your microfiber cloth or sponge into the solution and wring out thoroughly.
Step 4. Wipe your baseboards.
Step 5. Leave for 10 minutes, then wipe with a clean damp cloth.
PVC baseboards will hold up well to water, but you should still make sure your cloth is not dripping in order to protect your floors.
Note: Do not use vinegar on porous surfaces like wood and stone. Due to its acidic nature, it could damage the finish.
Cleaning Baseboards Without Hurting Your Back
One of the reasons people dread cleaning their baseboards is because they’re difficult to reach and require being on your hands and knees for long periods of time. There are a few things you can do to save your back, though, so try one of these tips next time you’re tackling your baseboards.
Using a long-handled item can keep you from bending over, which will help save your back. A Swiffer is probably the easiest way because you can easily attach cloths to the base of it. No matter whether you choose to use dryer sheets or microfiber cloths in water and soap, you should be able to stick it on a Swiffer and go. If you don’t have a Swiffer, any other flat mop should do the trick as well.
If you don’t have any from of flat mop, you can forgo the microfiber cloth in favor of a sock on the end of a stick. Any long stick will do, such as a broom handle. Stick the sock over the end of it and secure it with some rubber bands on the neck of the stick (so they won’t touch the baseboards). Then treat it just as you would a mop!
Keeping Your Baseboards Clean
Once you’ve thoroughly cleaned your baseboards, the easiest way to keep them looking great is to add them to a monthly cleaning routine. Now that they’re clean, they’ll just need a quick wipe, with no scrubbing required. And if you use the dryer sheet after cleaning, you may find that there’s hardly any dust or grime to remove.
