Vacuuming Routine for Spotless Floors
Feeling like you’re constantly cleaning your floors, but they never actually feel fully clean?
The level of dirt and debris that accumulates on your floors in your home will depend on your living situation, how much foot traffic comes in and out of your space, who you live with, and if you have pets. The more activity in your home, the more frequently your floors will need to be cleaned. There are, however, some different approaches that you can take to get you the results you’re searching for in an effective and efficient way. There’s a routine that can be followed, no matter the living situation.
Before we dive in, I want to emphasize that there is no “right” or “wrong” answer when it comes to your cleaning routine. Perfection is at best, attainable only momentarily and not necessarily sustainable. Your lifestyle, schedule, and preferences will ultimately make up your routine. Yes, making the time in your calendar and sticking to a schedule will make all the difference…but, allow for some flexibility, too. You are only human. Your time might get filled with a variety of last minute plans, emergencies, and other life events. That the reality of life. So, be easy on yourself sometimes…okay?
Here’s some tips and tricks on how to get yourself to show up with more consistency when it comes to your vacuum routine.
Image by Annushka Ahuja
Vacuums
First, let’s talk vacuums. If you don’t have one already, you’ll want a good vacuum for the carpets and another one for hard surface floors such as wood, tile, linoleum, marmoleum, marble, bamboo, etc.
There are some vacuums that combine all of these functions into one, such as the Dyson V15 Detect. Otherwise, here’s my top two recommendations for vacuums:
⭐️ Upright Vacuum for Carpets: Oreck Commercial Upright Vacuum
⚡️ Backpack Vacuum for Hard Surface Floors: Hoover Backpack Vacuum
Image by Ron Lach
Shoes OFF Household Rule
If you’re not a shoes off kind of household, this is something to consider when thinking of reducing the overall dust+debris in your household. One study found that the outsides of shoes averaged 421,000 units of bacteria, compared with 2,887 on the inside of the shoe. And fecal bacteria appeared on 96% of shoes.
Try updating your entry area, whether it be an outside shoe rack or an interior console that easily houses and hides shoes. You can make things fun with the use of “house slippers” for each household member and a few sets reserved for guests, too.
Image by Antoni Shkraba
Assign & Delegate
When one person is assigned a dedicated task on a specific day of the week, it creates a system that can be scheduled on an on-going basis. Depending on how often your floors need to be vacuumed, you may assign this recurring task to more than one person and on different days.
For example, I vacuum the floors on Sundays and my fiancé vacuums the floors on Thursdays on a rolling basis. This ultimately creates an accountability system in which we take full ownership over this task on these specific days.
Image by cottonbro studio
All at Once Rule
If possible, aim for vacuuming all of your floors in one setting. While it may take a little extra time to vacuum ALL of the floors at once, it’s going to greatly reduce the amount of dust and debris, overall. Since floors are the largest continuous surface throughout a space, foot traffic will naturally track and pick up debris from one room to another. This cross tracking can greatly increase, the more people and animals you live with.
Otherwise, if time is limited or if you have a larger space, try vacuuming all of the floors on one level in your home as an alternative solution.
Image by Vlada Karpovich
Frequency
Bi-Weekly: if you live alone or if it’s just you and another super-clean person or animal, it’s possible to get by on a once every 2 week routine for the “all at once” deeper clean vacuum task.
Weekly: if you have a small household that has a regular flow of foot traffic, a weekly “all at once” vacuuming is likely the best frequency.
Twice-per-week: if you have a full household with kids, pets, etc. a twice-per-week vacuuming routine is best. This is where delegating this task out to two people will come in handy. This way it makes for a weekly task that falls on each persons schedule.
Daily: for any household, there might be a quicker vacuum that takes place. This might include clean up in the kitchen after cooking and meal prep occurs. Or a quick vacuum in the living room as you notice buildup. This might be less of a deep clean task and more of a daily spot clean maintenance task.
Image by Roberto Nickson
Pet Care & Maintenance
Pet hair can be a big source of dirt, debris, and hair buildup on the floor. Try these habits and routines to reduce pet debris:
🪥 Brush your pet’s coat regularly with a shedding tool.
🐾 Wipe down a dogs paws before re-entering the house (especially on muddy days). This Portable Dog Paw Cleaner saves the muddy day.
🐈 Clean up any other pet waste and spills with an enzyme cleaner, such as this all natural one by Rocco and Roxie.
