As the winter snows fade and springtime approaches, you decide that it is finally time to tackle the task of repainting the family bedrooms. And even though you are not looking forward to it, more often than not, the actual job of painting is the easiest part.

The hard part is all of the prep work that you have to do before you can begin the painting job. So, exactly, what does paint prep work entail?

It starts with basic clean up. This means moving all of the heavy furniture either out of the room or to the center of the room and covering it with a tarp or drop cloth. You will need drop covers on the floor as well. Then, remove all of the pictures and other wall coverings from the wall.

Next, you want to take care of the cracks in the wall. There is no better time to cover up the small cracks than at the beginning of a paint job. Quick drying plaster or patching compound will make quick work of these.

If necessary, once the plaster has dried, sand over it lightly to give the wall a smooth finish. If the walls and ceiling of the room have dust on them, clean the walls with a damp rag. This will give the paint better adhesion.

Using painting tape, cover the edges of areas that are not to be painted. This includes things such as the edges of windows, window sills, electric outlets, lighting, and so on. Many people use masking tape for this purpose, but painting tape is easier to use and is usually easy to remove when you are done without damaging your paint job. Of course, if you have a steady hand and are a pretty decent painter, you can skip the masking part altogether.

Sometimes priming is necessary and other times it is not. If the surface is an extremely dry surface that hasn't been painted in a while, it may simply soak up your first paint layer forcing you to give the wall a second coat. In this case, it is cheaper to simply paint the walls first with a coat of primer and then simply paint over the primer.

You may also need a primer coat when you are painting a light color over a dark color. Otherwise, if the wall is in good shape, you may only need to put primer over the areas where you have patched. If this is the case, you can use what is known as a hot dog roller to quickly distribute the primer to the appropriate places. Primer should take no more than an hour or two to dry, and after that, paining should be a snap.