We have all turned our backs for a moment, nipped to answer the phone or sneaked off for a bit of chocolate (that we hopefully don’t have to share with our beloved children!), only to turn back around and discover that our child has used the walls of our home as their canvas!
Now we would never want to stifle our children’s creativity but is displaying their little masterpieces on the front of the fridge not enough? Apparently not!
With years of experience cleaning away the wonderful (but not commissioned) works of our little Banksy juniors, as well as helping others with wee vandals of their own, we have put together our top 3 ways for removing crayon from the walls.
Blow Dryer and Dish Water
A tried and tested method sure to convert your child’s art gallery back into your homes wall is the combination of regular dish soap and a blow dryer. With crayons being designed to stick, trying to wipe away your wee one’s masterpiece with water alone can be a difficult task and could require using a level of force that permanently discolours or leaves noticeable marks on your wall. Using a blow dryer to gently heat the affected area will allow the crayon to start to soften and eventually melt, which will make wiping away your little Picasso’s artwork away that much easier.
Wiping away the crayon will without doubt leave marks on whatever cloth is used so we recommend you use an old rag or even an old t-shirt, which can later be disposed. Any material which you can live with having marks on will be fine but we suggest that you save money and don’t buy new cloths as they will be filthy in no time.
If you do use a t-shirt, we should say, do not wash any other clothing with the shirt used to wipe away crayon as when the crayon melts and starts to come away from the t-shirt turned rag, it will redistribute itself onto other items in the wash and could potentially damage clothes not yet ready for the rag life!
Please, please, please try this method on a spot that is as out of sight as possible first and have a little practice before setting your blow dryer to full blast and damaging your home!
WD-40
WD-40 can be wonderful for the removal of crayon, especially on painted walls, with just a little spray of WD-40 and the wipe of a cloth being all these is needed to remove even hard worn in scribbles.
As well as the traditional spray can you are used to, WD-40 also have a ‘No-Mess Pen’ that is fantastic for removing crayon and as the spray blurts out with little accuracy, the use of the ‘No-Mess Pen’ can do wonders for minimising any further mess.
After removing crayon with the cloth be sure to wipe away any oily residue and avoid spraying onto curtains or carpet as WD-40 can be difficult to remove from fabric.
Magic Erasers
‘Magic Erasers’, such as those sold by the likes of Mr. Clean are a miracle product in a lot of ways! Although not actually magic, they work wonders on a multitude of painted surfaces and although you might need to put in some extra elbow grease if removing crayon from heavily textured walls but persevere and see fantastic results!
Although a great product as we said, these sadly are not actually magic and you should avoid using them on both glossy or polished surfaces, dark finishes and wood-panelled walls. As we suggested with the blow dryer technique, test your magic eraser on a out of sight corner spot to avoid making more of a mess or causing permanent damage.
If you are having trouble getting crayon out of the walls or if you are pushed for time, we would love to hear from you and to have your walls mark free in no time. Contact the Cleaning Company today and let’s see what we can do for you!