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For the past several years I've written an article this time of year covering various holiday cleaning tips, dos and don'ts. If you wish a refresher course click on years 2011 and 2012 and the October and November blogs give you all you need to know to speed cleaning your way through the holidays. Email me with any questions or better yet grab my book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Cleaning. The full stain removal guide in the back is quite popular during the holidays.

The past several newsletters have hopefully given you fresh ideas on how to clean the tough stuff around a home. Let's dig into popcorn ceilings, textured walls, wood paneling and wood beams.

Warning: do not attempt to clean large areas of any of these surfaces with a vacuum attachment. Dirt from the vacuum cleaner mucks up the surface and smears the webs into the coarse surface.

During my tenure of cleaning homes, my most disliked job was removing cobwebs from stucco or popcorn ceilings. I vacuumed, swept and called them some rather unkind names. The cobwebs smeared into the rough surfaces and the popcorn material landed everywhere. I finally attached lint roller replacement tubes to a paint roller and rolled off the cobwebs.

Note to the wise: Avoid sticky roller mops as they require rinsing leaving them too wet to use on walls and ceilings.

Purchase three to four replacement lint rollers, slide them over a paint roller and attach to my Extension Handle or yours. Cover the ends of the paint roller with painters tape to prevent marring the walls. The cobwebs stick to the tape so just tear it off as it soils. This system works equally as well for coarse wood beams and heavily textured walls.

Popcorn ceilings should never be washed as the moisture will bring down the entire ceiling. Call a professional for this job. Before cleaning popcorn ceilings have them tested for asbestos.

Washing heavily textured walls can be tricky and not advised. Spot clean them with an attachment to a steam cleaner. Roll them with the lint roller to remove cobwebs and dust. I used a four inch wide paint brush to tackle corners, ceiling and floor areas.

To clean around light switches or nab figerprints, spray the area with CleanEz or your organic cleaner, wait a few minutes and blot with a sponge or an old clean, white T-shirt. Terry toweling gets caught on the ragged edges, which can damage the surface.