All the Ways You Should Use Your Vacuum Cleaner but Don’t
Everyone knows how to use a vacuum cleaner, even if we don’t use it as often as we should. You can be one of those vacuum ninjas who use each attachment for its intended purpose and change settings as if they were driving a sports car with a shifter on a police chase, or you could be the one who just presses the ON button and slides the switch. work for a few minutes, but any approach gives you the right to say that you know how to use the machine. But vacuum cleaners have a lot more untapped potential. You have this device that produces suction powerful enough to pull cookie crumbs out of deep pile carpet and picks up enough pet hair to make a sweater every time you use it. Vacuum cleaners are incredible machines.
If all you’re doing is revealing it when your parents come to visit to give the illusion that you’re not living like an animal, you’re missing out because your vacuum cleaner may not be used for its intended purpose. Here are all the ways you should be using your vacuum cleaner, but they probably aren’t.
Find small items
If you’ve ever dropped a tiny screw, earring, or other small item, you know your home is turning into a voracious black hole that devours those items. They disappear into some lower dimension for weeks or years, and then suddenly appear in the most unexpected places.
Instead of crawling on the floor with a magnifying glass, turn on the vacuum cleaner and pull something transparent over the nozzle – tights or stockings will do, and in a pinch, a thin T-shirt. Secure it tightly with rubber bands and start vacuuming. If that speck of a screw or decoration is hidden in your carpet or stuck in the seams, it will be locked into the material as if by magic.
Refresh pillows and sofa cushions
People are disgusting. We are constantly releasing fumes, liquids, and germs, and quite often we release them through the pillows we sit on, sleep on, and lean on with our feet. If you think this won’t end up in some pretty stinky bed and sofa situations, you’re kidding yourself. In other words: many things in your house smell like feet and you don’t even realize it.
But your vacuum cleaner can save you from yourself. Sprinkle pillows and cushions with a little baking powder, rub gently with a damp sponge, and leave for about an hour. Then vacuum it all up. As a result, pillows and upholstery will be noticeably cleaner, and the smell of freshness throughout the house.
Remove dents in carpet
If you have carpet in your home, you know that heavy furniture and other items can leave semi-permanent dents. You decide to rearrange your living room and discover that there are literally holes in your carpet where the sofa used to be and they will never go away.
But you can get rid of them by using your reliable vacuum cleaner. Just take an ice cube and put it on the dent. Let it melt, then take your vacuum cleaner’s crevice nozzle (thin and narrow, designed to get into hard-to-reach places – its narrow opening provides the most intense suction) and run it over the dents. The suction will pull the treated carpet fibers back up and the dent will disappear.
Soothe baby
It may seem a little strange, but it’s a proven (albeit very, very strange) fact that white noise helps fussy babies fall asleep and calms colic babies almost like magic. And just about any white noise will do the trick – the steady roar of your vacuum cleaner can make your dogs run to hide, but there’s a good chance your screaming hell baby will suddenly calm down and start cooing in delight.
It’s the same principle as giving a crying baby a ride in a car, and so many people swear by this trick that there are LPs you can stream and CDs you can buy if you don’t feel like vacuuming. Bonus: You can start these recordings any time you want to end a phone conversation.
Refresh your air
Everyone ends up a little “blind” to their own home. Smells that would make you think about a friend’s health (physical and mental) if you were to experience them in their home don’t even register in your brain anymore. But they are. Oh they are there .
You can, of course, buy air fresheners or waltz around the house, dousing everything around in Febreze, but there is an easier way. Your vacuum cleaner is essentially a very large and very loud air filtration system. Apply some essential oil to a cotton swab and toss it into a canister before cleaning your home. As you move from room to room, your vacuum cleaner sucks in the stale, smelly air you somehow live in, filters out dust and dirt, and then pumps it back out – now with a slight scent. If you want to imagine cartoon flowers blooming your way, it’s entirely up to you.
The world is full of unusual uses for things, and knowing what they are is a kind of superpower. Your vacuum cleaner has just solved a few problems for you, so treat it well.