Once you know how to vacuum the right way, your floors will be cleaner than ever and your carpets will last longer, too.
Are your carpets starting to look dingy or turning dark on the edges at the base of your walls? Do you notice more pet hair or dust motes flying around in your home’s air? Maybe your home has developed that “old house” smell even though it’s newer. Or you’re starting to feel like your vacuum isn’t doing a good job.
The problem may not be the age of your carpets or home or even your machine’s fault. It may be that you aren’t using it the right way. If so, you’re not alone — most people do it wrong. Read on for how to vacuum the right way, what to do before and after, and how often you should vacuum your home.
How to Vacuum Your Floor
Equipment
- Vacuum cleaner
- Vacuum attachments
Instructions
- Pick up floor clutter. The fewer toys, chairs, or small items you have to work around, the better.
- Dust before you vacuum. The idea in cleaning is to move dirt down and then out of a room. The easiest way to do this is by dusting first before you vacuum. Start with the highest surfaces, like ceiling fans and fixtures. Then work your way down to furniture and baseboards. (Related: How to Clean Walls and Ceilings.)
- Get your machine ready. If you haven't already, empty the dust bin or check the bag. Vacuums have better suction when they're less than half full. Also, make sure the roller brush or beater bar can move freely. Remove any string, hair, or other debris that interferes. (Related: How to Clean a Vacuum Cleaner.)
- Use attachments to clean a room's edges first. Even the best machine won't get all the dirt where the wall and floor meet. Then you'll see dark edges on carpets at the base of your walls. Use your vacuum's crevice attachment for this instead.
- Adjust your brush head's height. If the brush is too high, it won't clean deep-down dirt. When it's too low, it can't spin well and interferes with the machine's suction. Some vacuums automatically adjust the height, but if yours doesn't, you'll need to do this yourself.
- Work slowly, in overlapping rows. Your machine needs time to suction up dirt — working too fast sends the dirt flying around. Push the vacuum away from you slowly. Then, without moving it to the side, pull it back. This gives your machine time to lift away dirt stuck between the fibers, instead of just what's on top of them.
- Turn and repeat. Carpet fibers are twisted loops. Those loops get dirty on all sides, so vacuuming in only one direction doesn’t get them completely clean. To get your carpeted floor clean all the way down to the pad, work across a room in one direction then turn and vacuum again from a right angle.
How Often Should You Vacuum?
In an ideal world, you’d vacuum wall to wall twice a week, and also go over high-traffic areas daily. In reality, it depends on the type of flooring and how much use a room gets.
Vacuum hard floors at least once a week. On top of weekly wall-to-wall vacuuming, go over the traffic lanes twice a week in most rooms. For busier rooms, like kitchens, you may want to do that daily. (Related: Homemade No-Rinse Floor Cleaner.)
Vacuum carpets twice a week. Carpet fibers hold onto pet hair, dirt, and bacteria more than hard floors do. To keep your home’s carpets clean, you need to vacuum wall-to-wall twice a week. In busier rooms, you should also do the traffic lanes daily.
Luke Yancey says
A lot of these tips are pretty common sense, but you would be surprised what people can forget! My favorite tip of yours was to vacuum the edges of the room first. This is one that I constantly forget, and nearly never remember. By the time it comes to clean the edges, they are disgustingly filthy. Thanks for the quick reminder!
James Hall says
These are great tips – and like Luke mentioned they are often forgotten!
I always try to give myself more time than I need to vacuum, because I like to get under furniture and around skirting boards every week. It takes around 30 minutes to clean my (small) home, but it’s worth it. I also have a cordless for “top up” cleans, although I’m yet to find one that can truly replace a corded model.
One thing that’s really important is cleaning the filter of a vacuum. Some filters are better than others, but once clogged up the suction power is greatly reduced. Dyson models solve this to a certain extent, but cleaning the filter is still important.
Diane says
It is my first time visiting your site and I just want to thank you for all the great information. All the information and ideas are helping my family get it clean the right way…and wow what a difference.
Have a great day and thanks again.
Katie Berry says
Thank you for the kind words, Diane! I’m so happy you’re finding my site helpful.
Barb Kuehl says
Most important part of vacuuming is to set height of vacuum to level of carpeting…..If you get marks you are set too low…Not cleaning the carpeting either…Just running over it………..No more marks in carpeting…..
Katie Berry says
Hi Barb,
I’m sorry, but I don’t agree. The lines referred to here occur when the vacuum head comes in contact with the carpeting. If you set the head too high, so there are no lines, it’s a sign the brush and vacuum head aren’t making contact with your carpet which means it’s not lifting debris or vacuuming dirt at all.