Cleaning stairs can be one of the most dreaded chores with the least satisfying results. That can change with my amazing tips to help you vacuum stairs and do a really great, rewarding job of it.
I’ve partnered up again today with Dyson to talk to you about my darn carpeted stairs. I mean, they look pretty great right now, but they’ve been driving me just a little crazy for the last 4 years. I’ve been wanting to take the carpet right off of them, but that’s a pretty big job and we just haven’t gotten to it yet, so I’ve had to do the best I can to keep them clean in the meantime. Let me tell you though, my best just hasn’t been good enough. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had people over and I’ve cringed when I’ve turned on the hall light to see all the pet fur, lint, and miscellaneous junk that seems to collect on them so quickly. I just needed a better way to vacuum stairs.
I’ve always really disliked vacuuming my stairs, even though it really does make my whole house feel cleaner because it always seemed to take forever. And it was awkward. And just really tiring. First I had to unravel the cord, then find an outlet and plug it in, then hold on to the big main part of the vacuum with one hand while I tried to make my way up the stairs and do a decent job with the hose in the other hand. Ick!
Well, Dyson sent me their new V6 Absolute to try out a few weeks ago and it has made all the difference. Like, a slightly life-changing difference, especially in a household with three pets, and two kids. I’m still using the same technique and style of attachments as before to vacuum, only now my stairs turn out looking so much cleaner and it only takes about half the time!
So Here’s how I Vacuum Stairs!
First of all, to get the full effect, you need to start with some really dramatically dirty stairs. In my house, this takes about 5 minutes to accumulate. 🙂
Next, grab your vacuum, the crevice attachment, and the mini motorized upholstery attachment.
Here’s what the V6 Absolute looks like:
You can see that it’s really not much more than just a stick, and it’s cordless and really lightweight, so it makes it super duper easy to vacuum stairs.
First of all, always start vacuuming your stairs at the bottom and work your way up. This gives you a really good view of everything you’re working with and makes sure you don’t pull your vacuum down onto yourself if you’re using a regular corded vacuum with a long hose. I actually did that the week before my Dyson arrived while I was trying to take a shortcut on my back hall stairs. It really hurt! So don’t do that. 🙂
Remove the long stick part of your vacuum and use the crevice tool attachment with just the main canister part of the vacuum to do a little detail work first on your stairs.
You can really have a lot of control to get into all the nooks and crannies this way. Crumbs and pet fur just love nooks and crannies!
Don’t forget just under the front lip of the tread of each step!
Use this attachment to just run over the front rounded part of the step too to remove any lint and to make it looks nice and fluffy.
Now switch out your attachments. Use the long stick part along with the mini motorized tool to do the rest!
Starting at the bottom again and working upwards, first go over the main part of each tread. This will keep things really super lightweight and will keep you movin’ fast!
This is the fun part where things really start to look good! I really love this vacuum because it really seems to pick up absolutely everything on the first pass! I’m no longer going over and over the same piece of lint with a big heavy vacuum 20 times. It’s just one and done!
After you’ve gone over and tread and before you move up to the next one, make sure you get the riser part of that stair too for a really nice finished look!
Just twist your wrist so the vacuum flips over and the bottom of the motorized tool is resting on the riser of the step and go over that area with a few up and down motions. Obviously with a bigger vacuum, I never would have been able to do this in the past, but now it’s so easy!
My whole staircase takes about 5 minutes now! Of course it gets done much more often, which makes me feel like quite the accomplished homekeeper whenever I have to show people my stairs. 🙂 Or at least I’m not ashamed of them anymore!
One of the best parts of vacuuming for me is looking at the canister afterwards to see just how much stuff I picked up that I didn’t realize was there! Just take a look at this! I started with a fresh empty canister before I did my 5-minute stair vacuuming routine, and ended up with this!
That’s definitely a lot of pet fur, but this machine also does a really great job of removing allergens and microscopic dust from whatever job you’re tackling and it’s Dyson’s first cordless model with a full HEPA filter. Well, there’s the proof! I had no idea that there was quite that much stuff in there! Where did that all come from?
Thanks so much to Dyson for partnering with me and for providing me with this vacuum to use all around the house. It really has made a huge difference in how easy things are to keep clean around here! I shared a few more of the clever ways that I’ve been using this machine around the house the other day too, so check that one out if you’re ready to get vacuum-happy too during this Spring cleaning season. 🙂
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.