When you’ve had a hard day at work and come back home only to find your pets or kids playing around the mess they’ve made on the floors, you feel more exhausted right? However, if you have a vacuum cleaner in hand, it may help ease the burden a lot.
Using the vacuum may seem like a quick resolution for any spill, but keep it in mind: Some messes just cannot live with the vacuum, we need to clean them in another way.
1. Broken Glass
Cleaning up broken glass would be a precarious situation, but copping out by using a vacuum can pose big risks to your machine.
With the sharp edges, the glass would scratch up the interior of the vacuum or even puncture some part of the vacuum. if your vacuum is a bagged vacuum, then you should be ready for preparing an amount of money to get it repaired.
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Take a broom and sweep away the bigger pieces of glass. Then pick up the small pieces by using a wet paper towel or a piece of bread.
2. Liquids
Vacuuming up liquids, water or any juice, etc. would be a sure-fire way to clog your vacuum. Imagine, sucking up liquids will make everything inside wet, and will invite any dust the vacuum collects and build up into a dirty damp mess, thus clogging up the tube and blocking the filter. What’s more, it is also a safety risk, can cause electrical failures in the machine that will put it out of action for good, let alone the moldy environment develops inside it.
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A “wet & dry” vacuum cleaner could handle this, but you could also use a kitchen roll, a microfiber cloth, paper towels, regular towels, washcloths, or mop to wipe up spilled liquids.
3. Cosmetic and Makeup
Makeup spills could be tragic while attempting to vacuum them up could create more problems than it solves.
Eyeshadow, foundation, blush, even broken bits of lipstick, mascara, etc. — none of these things should ever go in your vacuum. It is very likely that the vacuum brush may smear the makeup further into the carpet. And even if the makeup does get successfully sucked up into your vacuum, some makeup may actually melt once they are inside and cause serious damage. In one word, it would exacerbate the situation.
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For cosmetic spills, first, pick up as much makeup as you can. After that, you should use blotting paper to absorb as much stain as possible, then a cleaning solution prepared using white vinegar and baking soda to clean the stain could finish it in general.
4. Soil and Plant Debris
The soil, dried flowers, small or big stone, and plant debris make their way on your carpets or floors, at this time, you may be tempted to get out of the vacuum. Hold on, it would only push the dirt deeper inside the carpet and may even stain it. Wet soil could also cause issues for the motor. Moreover, they may retain moisture and promote the growth of mold inside the vacuum.
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Sweep up visible soil, dry mud, and fallen leaves. This is a task for your dustpan and broom.
5. Clumps of Hair
We know that a vacuum cleaner could help with hair, it is totally fine to vacuum the small strands of hair, while the heaps of long hair or clumps of hair may not worth vacuuming. It clogs up the machine, and you’ll need to constantly fish it out to make sure the vacuum could work properly again. You thought it is a time-saver, well it is not.
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Actually, the way to save your time and energy is sweeping it up using a broom and dustpan or just using your hands if it is on a rug or carpet. If there are bunches of hair clogging your vacuum, remove it gently using a pair of scissors and an old toothbrush. If you have a pet, we suggest getting a special vacuum cleaner for pet hair.
Warm notice: You won’t want to have the hair clogged in the toilet, so just don’t flush it into the toilet!
6. Ash and sawdust
It could be painful to clear up the ash, especially if you’ve had it spilled while emptying the fire grate. So do the construction debris and sawdust when you are having a building project. But sorry, it is not recommended to breeze through the cleanup with a vacuum. They are made up of fine particles that even a small amount could jam up the filter and cause the suction to drop. And also they can burn out the motor or get spurt out and get back into the air. But sweeping it right away using a broom is also not suitable for this situation, as it may send ultra-fine dust up into the air which could irritate your lungs.
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Two methods to clear it up:
- Let the ashes cool for at least four days, then use a utility or a wet/dry vacuum to clean out the area.
- Dampen before sweeping it with a dustpan and brush.
7. Small Items
Small items, such as coins, paperclips, are not for a vacuum. They could get stuck in the rotating brush or break off plastic pieces inside the machine, leading to damage to the small components of the vacuum cleaner, thus interfering with its motor and even ripping open the bags if it has one.
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Use your hands to pick up any hard items like coins, small plastic pieces, safety pins, etc. Doing this especially before vacuuming.
8. Electrical Cords
It may not seem to be a big deal if you came across the situation to vacuum over a cord, but it is not. The cords could end up as a shredded, tangled mess. It could even break apart the cord’s exterior and eventually expose the dangerous wires inside.
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Before vacuuming the place, take your time to look for any cords that might be in the way. Pick them up off the ground to make sure you won’t run over them. And make sure to keep your vacuum cord safely out of the way as well! Most vacuums have a handy cord clip that can help make it easier.
Conclusion:
Although vacuum cleaners are not a modern design and do help a lot to human’s daily life, we could not depend on everything on them as almost everything has its limitations. Knowing more about the things you should not clean using a vacuum, would better protect them and ensure better cleaning.