Actually maybe the answer is WHAT does this cleaning: several gallons of Simple Green and a lot of elbow grease wielded by 3 people!

I had mentioned to the lady who cleans for me that I needed to tackle the walls and ceilings of my inherited house and she was willing to come today, with her teenage daughter who helps her on some jobs. They have been to the house twice already-once to help me muck out the trash and once for our bleach debacle when it needed basic cleaning just because the place was too disgusting to be inside.

So we worked together and oh my, what a nasty but gratifying afternoon we had. As someone said in my original thread it wasn't complicated but it was lots and lots of work.

My housekeeper brought a pump-style sprayer that held a gallon of cleaner at a time and she worked on the ceilings, while her daughter and I did the walls. Daughter doesn't like ladders so I was up top and she did the lower sections.

We managed to make a very good start on a huge job-we did the master bedroom where the nicotine was extremely heavy, another bedroom that wasn't as bad since he had so much stuff in there he wasn't able to enter the room to smoke, the hallway which also had a lot of nicotine staining, and one wall and half the LR ceiling-yet another heavy concentration there.

So gross--as soon as she would spray, down would stream that nasty brown liquid. I spent a lot of time exchanging grimy buckets of water for fresh hot ones and rinsing out cleaning cloths.

However, at the end of the session it was clear that it can be done, which was a huge relief. She's coming again in 2 weeks when she has an open afternoon and I may tackle some of the smaller rooms myself before then if I get time.

Oh, and best of all nobody was bleach-asphyxiated! The Simple Green seemed to be a lot more user friendly, while definitely doing the job.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to send such helpful advice.

Ann