Help - how do I get this off the wall?

[CatalinaWineMixer76]

Just as the title says really! DD is 2, non verbal and has Autism. When she has dinner, she’ll often touch the wall during her meal as she likes the feel of squashing food between her hand and a surface.

I’ve tried to clean it but I’ve given up as I can never clean it completely off of the wall without damaging the paint! We’re in a rental so it’s not like this is our forever home and we can keep things a mess with no consequences.

She’s now placed a fresh handprint on the wall and I’ve had enough. Who has any tricks on how to get food stains off of the wall? Any specific products that have worked for you? Once I’ve cleaned this, I’ll certainly be trying to move DD somewhere else to eat her food. Thank you!

Are the stains sticky / oily? Goo Gone or elbow grease (the spray) might work if it's sticky or oily?

Might be worth trying that and a magic eraser, then perhaps repainting the wall if you can?

There's some fantastic protective sheets you can get that are basically large sheer plastic sheets that might help in the future, you might be able to just wipe those off.

Thank you for the quick comment! The stains aren’t sticky unfortunately, they feel slightly rough but feel like they’re apart of the wall somehow! I’m not sure if that makes sense but defo not sticky/oily

Bleach?

Magic eraser sponges!

I just thought that but wouldn’t it take the paint off the wall? Or should I dilute it with some warm water? As you can tell, I’m not the best cleaner here🫣

I just saw this on Amazon!! I wasn’t sure as I saw that it can take crayons off the wall but wasn’t sure about food?! Do you need to use any sort of spray or is it literally just the sponge with nothing else?

Seems too good to be true haha. However if you recommend it then I’ll buy it now!

Elbow grease spray you can repaint the wall its only white

We've used them for our walls before, they did take some paint off as well (blue walls, lots of blue colour on the sponge) and left a obvious clean swirl mark in our paint. But might depend on the type of paint.

But I don't think thats necessarily a problem if it looks a bit better. They will probably repaint when you leave anyway.

I would stick/screw a panel of wipe-clean material - possibly formica - over the place where you know her hand will go during a meal.

Sugar soap / magic eraser followed by zinsser cover stain (or BIN) then repaint with Zinsser All Coat interior Matt scrubbable. This will be the best and longest lasting finish if you want it back to original state and planning to stay a while.

If it's always the same patch of wall you could also consider removable sticker-type wall paper for that area then simply take it down and deal with the issue just before you leave.

Well, well, well! Would you believe this is the exact same area. I took @KnickerlessParsons advice and used bleach mixed with boiling water. No clue why I didn’t do it already.

Poof, it’s like the area was never dirty. It did take some paint off but oh well. It’s much better now! I’ll certainly look into covering the wall when DD eats, that’s a good suggestion.

Thank you all! X

Put Perspex on wall.

Unless it's an effect of the light there's still an obvious stain.

It's miles better, it'll paint out no problem.

You can see an outline of where the wall is still wet because I had to scrub the food off. Now that it’s dried, you can’t see anything. Once I paint it, it’ll be like brand you. It’s WAY better than what it was like before

HTH. Diluted bleach is my answer to many a stain.
Repaint with a washable paint.

Many thanks!

You can get a static film that clings to the wall. Had to use it for a very drooly boxer dog who liked to sit by a window!

Put 'electrostatic wall film' into Amazon and there are lots of options. Easy to remove/replace as it gets dirty