A Good Paint Job Requires Good Preparation

The ability to paint a room speedily and efficiently with minimal cleanup kicks off with properly preparing the room before opening the primary can of paint.
To correctly prepare a room for painting, begin by removing all the furniture from the room. Eliminating all the furniture from the room may not always be possible, especially if you live in a small apartment where all the rooms are already pinched for space. If you cannot remove the furniture from the room, move as much of it as possible to the center of the room and protect it with protective plastic sheets.
Right after clearing all the furniture from the room, remove pictures, paintings, shelves, and other wall mounted items. Eliminate all curtains and drapes at this time. You should also remove all walls and ceiling hardware at this point-light switch covers, receptacle outlet covers, as well as wall sconce and ceiling light fixtures; that includes the room ceiling fan. Prior to lowering light fixtures or fans, turn off the circuit breaker controlling their circuits to protect you from electric shock. Make safe the lowered ceiling fan or light fixtures by reinforcing them to the ceiling boxes with steel picture hanging wire to support their weight, taking the strain off of the electrical wires connecting them. Once you have lowered the fixtures and underpinned their weight with picture hanging wire, cover the fixtures with plastic to protect them from paint splashes.
Mask over the receptacle outlets and switches with Painter's Tape. Remove telephone jacks and TV Cable outlet covers as well. Cover all the device box openings. Cover the ceiling lighting and fan outlet boxes, too. Remove all screws and nails from the walls, being careful to not cause more damage to the walls in the process. Place a piece of plywood between the hammer and the wall when removing nails to keep from damaging the wall's surface.
Once you have taken out all the screws and nails, fill the holes with a spackling compound. Apply several coats of spackling compound to holes and other imperfections, allowing for each coat to dry before applying the next coat. After the spackling stops shrinking below the surface, sand the final coat smooth and even with the wall's surface utilizing a fine grit-a 150 or 200 grit-sandpaper. Make sure you cover all air vents before beginning the sanding process to keep the fine dust out of the duct work. Last but not least, clean the walls and ceilings with a cleaning compound approved for the purpose. Now, when the walls and ceiling have thoroughly dried, you are ready to get started with your paint project.