6 Surprising Spots You Should Vacuum Every Weekend, Besides Just the Floors

The weekend is for recharging, relaxing, and generally unwinding, right? You’ll hear no disagreements here, but it can also be a good time to catch up on tasks that might have fallen off the radar throughout the busy weekdays, vacuuming included.

We all know how important vacuuming is for maintaining a clean and healthy home environment, but it’s not just for floors. A host of areas need to be vacuumed regularly, even if they might require a little more time or muscle than a quick weekday vacuum allows. Reference our list of the top six spots you should vacuum every weekend to keep a truly clean home.

1. High-Traffic Areas

No vacuuming session is complete without a quick once-over in high-traffic areas like the kitchen, living room, entryway, and bathrooms. It’s best to keep these areas on your weekend to-do list, even if they might have been cleaned throughout the week. This is especially true if you have a lot of foot traffic coming in and out during the weekends. If you vacuum these high-traffic hot spots daily, consider investing in a stick vacuum to make the process quicker.

Don’t forget to look up in these areas and check the ceiling corners for any signs of cobwebs. Use the corner or brush attachments on your vacuum to eradicate ceiling and wall debris that might be hard to reach otherwise.

2. Behind and Under Furniture

Many of us have more time at home on the weekend than we typically have during the week, making it prime time for tackling time-consuming cleaning jobs, such as vacuuming upholstery and behind and under furniture. Always use the upholstery and crevice attachments on your vacuum to safely and effectively clean furniture like sofas and chairs.

3. Blinds

Windows can be a chore to keep clean and dust-free. Use a brush attachment on the nozzle of your vacuum to both dust and vacuum at the same time, preventing particles from settling back in after you move to the next window.

The large slats of shutters might be easier to vacuum than those of mini blinds or even cellular shades, so make a plan based on your window blind type and style. You might have to finish by manually dusting some blinds to reach all the nooks and crannies.

4. Pet Beds

If you have a shedding pet, you should tackle this task more often, but at the bare minimum, plan to vacuum all pet beds weekly. Even animals that don’t shed fur still release dander and can track in dirt, grass, and debris from the environment. Vacuuming a pet bed before adding it to the washer can save your machine and the headache of trying to dig soggy, laundry soap-laden pet fur out of the filters. To make quick work of the process, use your upholstery attachment to zip over the bed before removing the cover to place it in the laundry.

5. Baseboards

It’s easy to neglect the baseboards, so adding them to a weekly cleaning schedule gives them the attention they deserve. To properly clean them with a vacuum, use the crevice tool over the baseboards to dislodge all the debris in those tight corners. Remember, order matters when it comes to cleaning your floors and baseboards—tackle the floors first to avoid transferring dirt to clean baseboards.

6. Rugs

When it comes to vacuuming your rugs, first go over the top of the rug, and then get family members involved to move furniture and roll up the floor covering so you can vacuum beneath. Tackling what’s underneath is ideal for weekends, when you spend a few more hours at home and can benefit from extra hands in the household to make quicker work of this sometimes laborious process.

While it’s important to regularly vacuum your rugs, even with daily maintenance, dirt, dust, and debris can still settle under the floor coverings. Whether they’re small and can be easily lifted, shaken out, and replaced after the floor is vacuumed, or large and require being rolled up so the floor underneath can be adequately cleaned, schedule this task weekly to keep your rugs, floors, and overall health of your home in top shape.