Travis Larson: Hi! I'm Travis Larson. I am an Editor here at Family Handyman and today I'm going to talk about tips for neater painting. Believe it or not, we're not even going to talk about painting, we're going to talk about all the prep work, because that's what's going to give you crisp lines, and really nice results. We're also going to tell you how to keep yourself clean and the room clean. The first thing you'll need, and it's worth spending money on it, you'll get a little sticker shock when you go in and buy them, but a nice heavy duty painter's canvas drop cloth. Most pro painters use tools, and they use a big one for the middle of the room like a 1212, 1010, something on that order but the real go to drop cloth is a 4-foot wide drop cloth.

They're designed for stairways and hallways, but the truth is that most painters use them along walls when they're painting each individual wall. They're real simple to move around the room, and they'll catch all of the fall out that comes off the roller and your paint brushes. We're going to talk a little bit about caulking tips as well. Believe it or not, caulking is really underrated, and painters do it all the time, but you homeowners do it. You're going to need a utility knife, a putty knife that's a flexible one, don't get a stiff one, and a high-end Painter's Tape like FrogTape. It's best to have a 1-inch, and a 2-inch size.

So then we're going to talk a little bit about cleanup after the job is done just to make sure that all these little bleed-throughs that you might have, spatters on the floor and so forth, we're going to tell you how to clean those up when the paint is still fresh, and easy to get up. Let's get started and I'll show you how to keep yourself and your house clean.