7 Methods that Actually Work to Remove Crayon from Walls

You love your kids’ artistic streaks but not if it means you need to remove crayon marks from walls.

Unfortunately for me, my twin daughters went on a giant wall coloring binge with crayons. To make it even better than used an ugly brown and black crayon they snuck upstairs to their bedroom, instead of nice light yellow or cream color.

In the past I have successfully removed crayon from walls using a Magic Eraser. And they work, but I found the process tedious, and it often removes the paint as well as the crayon markings, dripping white paint down my arm and onto my clothes and carpeted floor.

No thank you! 

I prefered to find a way how to remove crayon from walls without removing paint.

Plus, this wasn’t like a small square foot area; this was top to bottom crayon markings on every wall in their bedroom. I knew this was a project that would take me hours to successfully do.  Magic Erasers aren’t inexpensive, even generic ones, and I would need several to tackle this job.

That’s why I postponed getting rid of the crayon markings from the walls…. for a year. I wanted a quick, cheap, possibly green (what are in those Magic Erasers anyway?), and certainly easy way to remove crayon from walls as I had to tackle an hour plus cleaning.

So I searched the internet for ideas on different ways to remove crayon from walls. I found numerous suggested ways. I figured why not do an experiment testing out these various ways to get crayon off walls. Could be fun, right?

How to Remove Crayon from Walls – Products that don’t work

To save you all some time, I am going to start with the things that did not work.

Basic H2 Degreaser

I found a pin that said that I could use Shaklee® Basic-H2® Degreaser and a microfiber cloth to get crayon off the walls.

I happen to have this product, as we were gifted a full set of Get Clean products four years ago. However, it didn’t work. In fact, I’m not impressed by anything in their product line. In the picture you can see a little smudging of the crayon. That’s all the degreaser did. Fail.

Dryer Sheet (Dry or Wet)

Rubbing a dry dryer sheet to remove crayon from a wall did absolutely nothing. Dipping the dryer sheet into water and then scrubbing the wall with it did only a little something, but a wet dryer sheet is like the hardest cloth to scrub with ever. Don’t bother trying to clean crayon from walls with dryer sheets. Plus, dryer sheets aren’t cheap or chemical free.

Toothpaste

While toothpaste smells minty fresh, it’s pretty gross to use as a cleaning agent. And despite what the pin said, toothpaste didn’t get crayon marks off walls. At least it didn’t at all for me. 

Vinegar

The directions I found for using vinegar to clean crayon marks from walls said to clean the walls with vinegar and a toothbrush. So I did.

If I thought other ways to get crayon off walls were tedious, this one took the cake. And it didn’t work very well. Despite vinegar’s awesome cleaning abilities in other areas of the home, crayon removal apparently isn’t one of its strong suits.

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How to Remove Crayon from Walls – Products the Work!

Blow Dryer

I found that using a blow dryer, which heats up the crayon wax on the wall, allowed me to easily remove crayon from walls with a simple wet and soapy washcloth. I heated up the crayon on the walls, scrubbed them with the washcloth, and off the marks came! However, my hand got tired of holding the hairdryer and the room started to heat up quite a bit. Whew!

Dish soap and Water

I was very surprised that getting a good textured washcloth and a bucket full of dish soap and hot water would also get crayon off walls!

You had to scrub hard, of course, but it worked. I used this in conjunction with the blow dryer and it worked well. However, scrubbing hard does remove some of the white paint from the walls. Soapy water helped cleanup after several of the following cleaning methods as well. 

Goo Gone

I was honestly very surprised that Goo Gone worked as well as it did. I put a little on a folded piece of paper towel, and rubbed it in. It’s a great way to remove crayon from walls without removing paint! The only downside is the oily residue it leaves behind. I used the soapy water mentioned above and cleaned it up.

Glass Cleaner or Ammonia

I used some Kroger brand glass cleaner (which is ammonia-based) and sprayed some onto the wall and scrubbed with a cloth. Glass cleaner will get crayon off walls! I found that if you let it sit for a little bit it was a little easier to remove.

WD-40

This tip worked about as well as the Goo Gone. Spray a little WD-40 onto a folded paper towel and rub it onto the crayon on the walls. It works well over large areas. The downside of using WD-40 to remove crayon from walls is that it stinks majorly like an auto shop, and leaves an even thicker oily residue on the wall. Use soapy water to clean it off.

Baking Soda and Water Paste

While vinegar might not have worked, the other awesome household cleaner, baking soda, did. To remove crayon from walls with baking soda, make a paste with baking soda and water. A 50/50 mixture is great. Grab a rag, or sponge, and scrub the paste onto the wall to get crayon marks off. The only downside of using baking soda to get crayon off walls is that your walls will be left with a gritty baking soda residue, that will ultimately, have to be cleaned off with that bowl of soapy water again.

Mr. Clean Magic Erasers

I know it’s not my favorite, but Magic Erasers do work well to get crayon marks off walls. Despite the fact that it drips scrubbed off paint down my arm and everywhere else, and disintegrates before I’ve completed a 4’x4′ piece of wall, it works.

If you want to avoid having to clean crayon off your walls again, thanks to your little Picassos, via any of the above methods, then I suggest you throw away all regular crayons and ONLY buy WASHABLE Crayons. It might cost a little bit more, but it has been a huge time saver, because, I honestly hate scrubbing the walls! Washable crayons come off like a dream. Talk about an easy way how to remove crayon from walls!

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Also, be sure to check out my other cleaning posts!: