Over time your walls are bound to get something on them.  Whether it is dirt, grease or nicotine you should be able to clean it off of your wall.  The ease of cleaning will depend on several factors, including; the quality of the paint on the wall, how shiny the paint is, what you got on the wall, how long it has been there and what you use to clean it off.

Household Cleaners For Washing Painted Walls

• One part liquid dish soap to two parts of warm water works very well as a cleaner and degreaser.  This can be used to wash down walls prior to painting or to wash down kitchen cabinets.

• TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) is a great wall cleaner.  If you buy the powdered version of TSP you will have to rinse your walls down after cleaning them to remove the phosphate residue.  If you use liquid tsp concentrate, you can simply rinse the walls down and they will be clean and ready for painting.