I finally figured out why my paint kept peeling off the kitchen trim
For the longest time, I'd get so mad when the paint on my window sills and door frames would chip or peel after just a year. I thought it was cheap paint, so I kept buying more expensive stuff, which was a total waste of money. The real problem, which I only learned after talking to an old painter at the hardware store in Tacoma, was that I wasn't cleaning the surface well enough before I started. He said, 'Kid, you can't just dust it off. That trim has years of cooking grease and dust you can't even see.' He was right. I started wiping everything down with a mix of warm water and a little TSP substitute, letting it dry fully, and then painting. The last coat I did that way has held up perfectly for over two years now. Has anyone else found a simple prep step they were missing that made a huge difference?