Are You Vacuuming The *Right* Way?

Vacuuming was one of the first chores I ever had as a kid. I think I was around 9 or 10 when my mom asked me to vacuum the living room, and it probably took me until age 30 or so to realize I was pretty bad at the task. It turns out, vacuuming a carpet as fast as you can, pushing furniture around with your feet, and gliding the vacuum across entire rooms in mere minutes isn’t actually doing much good. With three kids, a dog, a cat, and two parents who work full-time from home — I desperately need to learn how to vacuum properly.

You’re probably not vacuuming often enough.

And the first tip? I need to stop waiting until it looks dirty to pull out my vacuum. Elvia Ramos, a cleaning expert from Los Angeles, California, is a Tasker listed with the service Airtasker and says vacuuming regularly (not just when your floor looks like it needs it) is key to keeping allergens and dust from building up in the first place. “If it’s a home without pets and not a lot of foot traffic, once or twice a week is usually fine. But if you’ve got pets — especially ones that shed — you’ll want to vacuum at least every other day, if not daily, in some rooms. Pet hair hides everywhere, and it adds up fast. A robot vacuum can help in between deep cleans, too.”

And then you’re vacuuming too fast.

But here’s where I realized I really wasn’t vacuuming properly — Ramos says not only do you need to be going slow, but you also need to be changing directions. “I always tell customers — pretend you’re giving the carpet a massage, not a race. Going over each section at least twice helps pick up that deep-down dirt, especially in high-traffic areas. Also, don’t forget to change direction. Like, go north-south, then east-west. It fluffs the carpet and lifts up stuff that might have gotten missed the first time,” she says. All those times I was convinced my vacuum cleaner was terrible... I think it was just me.

Wet vacs also have a specific technique.

If you’ve been on social media for even half a second, you’ve seen all of the influencers sharing their new favorite vac-mop hybrid tool that claims to vacuum and mop your floors at the same time. But using them requires a little forethought. Ramos suggests vacuuming up dry debris before switching to the mop function. “If you try to do it all in one go, it can just turn crumbs and dust into sludge. Go slow when you’re using the wet vac setting so it actually has time to scrub and suck up the dirty water,” she says.

And her biggest vac-mop tip? “Clean it right after using it. Those things can get funky fast if you let dirty water sit.”

You’re probably not cleaning your vacuum enough either.

It feels extremely Danny Tanner to clean your cleaning tools, but Ramos says your vacuum needs to be cleaned way more often than you probably realize. “I check and empty the canister after every job — it keeps the suction strong. The roller should be cleaned weekly, especially if there’s long hair — human or pet — wrapped around the roller. Filters usually need a wash once a month or a replacement every couple of months, depending on the brand.” And if at any point you notice your vacuum starts smelling dusty or losing suction, that’s “usually your sign it needs a little love,” Ramos says.

And seriously, just lift the couch already.

Ignoring the floor under the furniture is probably my biggest vacuum fail. It just never seems that important until I bend down to look for the remote and shriek in horror. Ramos says this is a common mistake for people in their homes, and she promises that running the vacuum under the couch even just once a week can help. And when I ask her the biggest thing people do wrong with vacuuming? “Skipping the edges and corners. Dust and pet hair love hiding there. I always use the crevice tool for those spots.”

Great. Now I need to go move the couch and see what’s lurking in the corner back there.