Of all the jobs around the house, vacuuming the stairs is the most groan-invoking. But there are several different ways to approach the problem – so how do you clean yours?
Personally, I carry my small cylinder vac about and use the main floorhead to clean each step. I then return to the bottom, attach the crevice nozzle and go round the edges of each step â or rather, the ones I canât get away with not vacuuming.
On the other hand, my other-half will move the vac from stair to stair and use just the crevice nozzle, or alternatively use just the hose without a nozzle attached.
An upright conundrum
It can be an especially annoying task for owners of upright vacuums, as these types of vac tend to be heavier than their cylinder counterparts. They also donât take well to sitting on stairs.
Unless, of course, your upright vac has a hose long enough for you to leave it on the floor while you tackle the stairs with the hose and attachments. One of our Which? members is lucky enough to have one such vacuum:
‘This enables the vacuum to be stood at the bottom of the stairs and you can then reach to the top stair. This is one of the reasons why I prefer an upright vacuum. It is much safer than trying to have a vacuum stood on the stairs.’
Then there are cordless or handheld vacs, which are lighter than the typical vac and generally a lot less effort. However, they often come with added expense.
How do you clean your stairs?
Some people have two vacuum cleaners â one upstairs and one downstairs â to avoid lugging anything up and down the stairs. But whatâs your preferred method of cleaning the stairs themselves?
Do you use more than one vacuum cleaner or an attachment for cleaning the stairs? Do you keep a handheld vacuum as well as a full-size model?