Vacuuming is a necessary task for maintaining a healthy and comfortable living space. Vacuuming — next to washing dishes — is perhaps the most frequently done chore, and fortunately, it’s also one of the most immediately gratifying. It can be very satisfying to see the progress being made as you drive around in a powerful machine sucking up dust, pet hair, and other debris from your floors.
If you’re like me, you may not know that there’s a right and wrong way to clean your floors. Even if you have the best vacuum on the market, if you use it incorrectly, it won’t perform at its best and your floors won’t be as clean as they could be.
We’ve done a lot of in-depth real-world and lab testing to ensure we recommend the best cordless, robot, and budget vacuums on the market. As we all know, the best tools won’t do much good if we don’t use them properly. So by combining the best vacuums with professional cleaning tips, you can be sure to have clean floors in no time.
The Right Way to Vacuum Your Home
Those short, quick, back-and-forth motions that most people use when they vacuum don’t suck up all that dust, dirt, and lint stuck in your carpets and floors. The more efficient way to vacuum — and the way professional cleaners do it — is to move forward, in structured rows.
You will start by vacuuming a row of carpet in one direction, from wall to wall. This first pass should be in return for the pile of the carpet to make it swell and to make it easier to remove deeply embedded dirt. One way to tell if you are vacuuming against the pile properly is if the pile of the carpet is raised or looks slightly darker.
Next, push the vacuum back over the strip you just vacuumed. This will flatten the carpet and pick up any remaining dirt you missed the first time. Once you’re back at your starting point, vacuum another strip right next to the first, overlapping it slightly. Continue this routine until the entire room has been thoroughly vacuumed.
Once you’ve completed that step, go perpendicular: if you vacuumed from north to south the first time, vacuum from east to west the second time. Yes, it’s extra work and may even seem like overkill, but this method ensures that you remove every bit of dirt and debris, keeping your carpet cleaner and looking new for longer.
For more helpful information about vacuum cleaners, check out the best Roomba alternatives to keep your floors clean and the best robot vacuum deals available right now.
