There aren’t too terribly many people that love knocking out household chores on a regular basis, with most people instead wishing that they had someone else cleaning up after them so that they could kick back, relax, and enjoy their time away from work.
At the same time, most everyone knows that a space that has been recently vacuumed just looks, feels, and even smells a lot fresher – even if it takes a lot of extra time to get the job done right (without one of those little robot cleaners, anyway).
Here are just a few tips and tricks to help you speed up the time that you spend vacuuming the carpet without compromising the quality of the finished results you are getting!
By the way, if you are not happy about your vaccum cleaner and planning to get a new one – check the best vaccums for carpets here.
Make It Easier On Yourself BEFORE You Have To Vacuum
Just an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and the more you can do to stop from tracking in dirt, dust, and debris into your home the less time you’ll have to spend vacuuming it all up.
So stop letting everyone track mud and dirt, leaves and debris, and tons of dust into your home by requesting that they take their shoes off in the mud room (or a designated space near the front door) and leave them there until they are ready to go back outside again. This alone will contain a lot of the mess to just one central area that you can clean up a lot faster, cutting down dramatically on the amount of time and effort you have to spend vacuuming the whole house.
Once Is Never Enough So Smartly Layer Your Vacuum Paths
Unless you have a ridiculously powerful vacuum cleaner (like a next generation Dyson, for example) or a steam cleaner, the odds are pretty good that you’re going to have to go over the same area of floor at least twice to pull up all of the dirt, dust, and debris collected on it.
Understanding this right out of the gate is going to make it a lot easier to choose smart paths to vacuum each space, allowing you to go over all areas of your carpet or flooring twice without having to loop around and feel like you are wasting a lot of time in the process.
Stick To A Vacuuming Schedule Religiously
The reason that so many people infrequently vacuum their homes (even though they know they should be vacuuming at least once a week) is because they do not have a set “vacuum day” that they stick to religiously every single week.
So pick a Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, or Saturday morning that you’ll handle all of your vacuuming on and then stick to that same schedule from here on out – never skipping and never missing a scheduled vacuum.
This will force you to stay on schedule, force you to be more consistent with your cleaning, and provide you with much better results and a lot less work to have to push through if your vacuuming schedule was much more sporadic.
This Is How You Vacuum Your Home Like A Professional:
You would have a really tough time finding even just a handful of people you know that would love nothing more than to have a full-time maid service on staff handling all of their household chores – but especially vacuuming – for them, especially if they didn’t have to pony up the cash themselves for these professional services!
And though most of us will have to knock out our own vacuuming on a regular basis from here on out, there are definitely some “trade secrets” we can steal from professional cleaners to get a much better results without investing anywhere near as much time or effort as we have been right now.
These are some of the best tips professional cleaners have when it comes to getting the most out of your time spent vacuuming!
Spot treat before you vacuum
A lot of people are under the impression that vacuums alone are more than enough to clean everything and anything that’s caked on a carpet or rug, but nothing could be further from the truth.
This is why you want to use powerful cleaning chemicals and spot removers on any caked on the areas BEFORE you vacuum (ideally 20 minutes before you vacuum) so that you have every opportunity to actually lift those soiled areas and get rid of them forever.
Pick up small objects and move cords before you turn on the vacuum
There’s nothing worse than trying to push small objects (the kid’s toys, your pet’s toys, etc.) around with your vacuum while you vacuum, except for having to try and fish those small objects out of the vacuum cleaner after you inadvertently suck them up!
Pick of all small objects and electrical cords around before you turn on your vacuum and you find the whole process to be a lot less stressful and go much faster.
Move furniture as you go through the room
We have all nudged couches and chairs around with our vacuum, moving them a couple of inches here and there and called the room completely cleaned afterwords, but that’s not really what we expect from professional cleaners – and you shouldn’t settle for anything less than perfectly clean yourself, either.
The good idea to move furniture as you move around the room, positioning it out of its traditional space and then back as you vacuum things up. You’ll be able to move quickly and still get a much deeper clean with this kind of approach.
Make sure you are using the right setting and the right attachment
There’s a world of difference in the results produced by a vacuum running over a hardwood floor but set to carpet cleaning settings and a vacuum set to hardwood floor settings, and it’s something that you will notice the very first time that you set your vacuum correctly.
Hook up the right attachments and really read your manual (or watch videos online) to maximize the potential that your vacuum brings to the table. It’ll make life a lot easier on you!