Before you read another word, go and look at your skirting boards.
Not the tops. The front, down where you hoover.
See a faint grey-black line running along the white paint? Almost every home in Britain has it. You have walked past it a thousand times, and nobody talks about it, because almost nobody has ever noticed it.
As featured in The Sun, the Mirror and the Liverpool Echo
Krasi sees it everywhere. "It is in nearly every property I walk into," she says. "Big houses, small flats, spotless homes. And when I point it out, the owner has never once known what it is."
The culprit is your hoover
Every time you vacuum, you run the head as close to the skirting as you can. That is good cleaning. But the plastic edge of the vacuum head rubs the paint and leaves a little of itself behind, every single time. Week after week, those tiny scuffs build into a dark line along the white.
The exact moment it happens. The plastic edge rides along the paint with every pass.
The frustrating part: the mark is caused by cleaning. The more house-proud you are, the more you hoover, and the darker it gets.
See it disappear
BeforeTap to compare. Same skirting board, one wipe of a soft sponge later.
The ten minute fix
No repainting needed. A bottle of Cif Cream Cleaner costs around £2 from Amazon or any supermarket, and one bottle lasts months of these touch-ups.
Put a small amount of Cif Cream Cleaner on a soft sponge.
Work along the skirting in small circles with light pressure, and watch the line lift off.
Wipe over with a clean damp cloth to remove any residue.
Let it dry. Ten minutes in a hallway, and the woodwork looks freshly painted.
The sponge has to be soft. Never the green scouring side, never a hard sponge, never a brush. They strip the paint instead of the mark. An older, worn-in sponge that has lost its roughness is exactly right.
It is not just your skirting boards
Anywhere the hoover head reaches gets the same treatment. Look along the bottom of your wardrobes and furniture, the same dark scuffs build up there too. The same product, the same soft sponge and the same ten minutes bring it back to white.
BeforeThe base of a white wardrobe, before and after.
"The more house-proud you are, the more you hoover. And the darker the line gets."
Krasi Delcheva, 25 years of cleaning London homesWhy it is worth ten minutes
Marked woodwork makes a clean room look tired, and it is one of the first things a trained eye catches. If you are moving out, scuffed skirting and doors are exactly what a checkout inspection flags, which is why they get attention in every proper end of tenancy cleaning. The same goes for any thorough deep cleaning, skirting boards are always on the list.
The habit that keeps it away
The line will slowly return, because you are not going to stop hoovering. So once a month, after you vacuum, run the soft sponge along the skirting in the rooms you hoover most. Thirty seconds a room, and it never builds again.
Rather never think about it again?
Skirting boards are part of every proper clean. A vetted cleaner, a fixed price you see before you book, and details like this quietly looked after.
See domestic cleaning pricesYour price appears before you confirm.
Found the mark? Send this to someone whose skirting boards you have seen.
Press and media: Krasi is available for expert comment on cleaning, homes and end of tenancy. Contact hello@cleanersoflondon.co.uk.
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