If you feel like you’re constantly vacuuming but your floors never seem to get truly clean, you’re not imagining things, and your vacuum likely isn’t broken. It’s a common frustration: you put in the time, but dust, pet hair, and dirt stubbornly remain. Ignoring it isn’t great for your home’s air quality, but simply vacuuming more isn’t the answer if your technique is off.
The reality is, there’s one major mistake almost everyone makes that prevents a truly deep clean, especially on carpets. It has less to do with the machine and more to do with how you move it across the floor.
Luckily, fixing this common error is simple and doesn’t cost a dime. By adjusting your pattern and speed, you can significantly improve your vacuum’s effectiveness, pick up more embedded grime, and finally get the clean results you’ve been aiming for. Here’s the right way to do it.
That’s why we’ve tested several vacuums to ensure we’re giving you the top recommendations for the best cordless, robot and budget vacuums on the market. Make sure you’re using the tools of your choice the right way to clean your home more efficiently. We’ll show you how.
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The right way to vacuum clean your home
Those short, quick, back-and-forth motions that the majority of people do when vacuuming isn’t sucking up all that dust, dirt and lint that is embedded into carpets and floors. The more efficient way to vacuum — and the way professional cleaners do it — is to go forward, in structured rows.
You’ll start by vacuuming a row of your carpeting in one direction, wall-to-wall. This first pass should be against the nap of the carpet to fluff up and make the deeply embedded dirt come up easier. A way to tell if you’re vacuuming against the nap correctly is if the carpet piles stick up or look a little darker.
Next, push the vacuum back over that strip you just vacuumed. This will lay the carpet back down flat and will suck up the rest of the dirt you missed on the first pass. Once you’re back to your starting place, vacuum another strip right next to the first, overlapping slightly. Keep repeating this routine until the whole room has been vacuumed thoroughly.
Once you’ve completed that step, go perpendicular: If you were vacuuming north to south the first time, vacuum east to west on this second pass. If you think of your floor as a grid, you’re going to want to pass over each square both ways for the best results.
Yes, it’s extra work and maybe it even seems like overkill, but this method ensures you get every bit of dirt and debris, which will keep your carpet cleaner and looking newer for longer.
For more helpful vacuum info, explore the best Roomba alternatives to keep your floors clean and the best robot vacuum deals available now.
More vacuum tips
- Your Robot Vacuum Cleans Even Better if You Do This
- Clean the Grime Out of Your Roomba to Make It Vacuum Better
- Samsung vs. Tineco: Which Brand Makes the Better Cordless Vacuum?
- Want Cleaner Carpets? Shaving Cream and Baking Soda Are Your Friends
FAQs
How many times should I repeat this technique?
You should repeat this technique as many times as it takes to vacuum overlapping strips across the entire room. Then, you should start the same process vacuuming the floor in the direction perpendicular to when you started.
Does this technique work with carpet cleaners?
This technique absolutely works with carpet cleaners, but be aware that carpet cleaners are there to wash your carpet — not pick up the debris and dirt. That’s why it is recommended to use a carpet cleaner first, and then wait for it to dry before using the vacuum with the aforementioned technique.
