Getting Organized Before Painting

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Once you start painting, it’s most efficient to keep going as the job progresses. So be sure to clear the work area of furniture, cover what you can’t take out and mask any hardware that you haven’t removed.

Here are some tips on getting started:

• Keep a “painter’s outfit” of old clothes for paint days. A long-sleeved shirt, trousers, work gloves and shoes should suffice. Add an old hat or a painter’s hat if you’re painting ceilings.
• Cover up your work area with heavy canvas drop cloths rather than spreading newspaper. Paint splatters are absorbed with drop cloths and won’t flake off when dry, which means less to clean up later. Canvas drop cloths are also relatively skid-proof, a feature that you will appreciate when high up on a ladder, and they don’t tear easily. Protect any ceiling lighting fixtures from splatters if you are painting the ceiling. Bag them in garbage bags tied snugly at the top. Remove all switch and receptacle plates or cover with masking tape or painter’s tape.
• Pry open a new paint can with the wide tip of an old screwdriver, working evenly around the lid’s edges so as not to bend or deform it. Stir thoroughly when it pops open. Then pour enough paint into a pail for immediate use. Cover the rest to keep it from drying out. To avoid paint accumulating in the rim and dripping down the sides of the paint can, puncture the rim with a nail. The excess will then run back into the can.

Remember that good ventilation is a must in all weather when it comes to all paints. Latex paints have relatively little odor when wet because they don’t contain many solvents. Open doors and windows during painting anyway since it will speed drying.