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When it comes to household chores, vacuuming is essential for spotless floors. And if you've ever dropped small items like earring studs, tiny screws, safety pins, or even Lego pieces onto the carpet, this can make the task even more challenging. Plus, I can’t think of anything worse than sifting through a dirty dust canister just to find an item.
Social media is full of useful cleaning hacks, and the go-to place for the ‘CleanTok’ community to share their simple hacks to get the most out of your best vacuum cleaner. That’s when I discovered this simple trick that had been doing the rounds on TikTok for a while.
What’s more, it's a fast, free trick that uses an everyday item of clothing you wear and likely already have on. So what exactly is this clever trick that could rescue my small objects during cleaning?
What is the sock vacuum hack?
The sock or pantyhose vacuum hack is essentially where you place a sock or pair of tights over the vacuum cleaner hose to easily retrieve smaller items. The idea is that it will act as a barrier when picking up smaller objects that you don’t want your cleaner to suck up.
This hack was not only a hit on social media, but also considered one of the 'essential vacuuming hacks that every householder should know' from SharkClean.
“Most people who wear jewelry know the horror of realizing that a precious stone, ring, or earring has gone missing,” according to Shark. “Rather than get on your hands and knees to start covering every inch of your flooring, stretch an old pair of tights over the end of a handheld vacuum cleaner accessory.
Then simply retrace your steps while vacuuming the floors. The jewelry will be sucked up, but the tights will stop it from entering the bag or cylinder.”
Since I’m often skeptical of such ‘viral’ hacks — and I’ve tried many, I decided to put a sock to the test to see if it really works.
Here’s what happened
First, I secured a sock (tights would also work) over my vacuum's crevice attachment using an elastic band.
To test this method, I randomly scattered a couple of pieces of jewelry on my rug; tiny items that my vacuum would easily swallow up. Then, I set my Dyson cordless vacuum to full power to see how well it would retrieve these. To my surprise, the sock was able to capture the thin bracelet, preventing it from being sucked up into the dust abyss — never to be seen again. Once I saw this, I simply turned the power off to grab it from the end.
I then tried this trick with tiny picture frame hooks that I’d often lose at the back of the sofa (a result of not hammering them onto the wall properly!). Again, it was able to pick up the frame hooks with ease. Impressive. Just be sure to secure your sock properly with an elastic band, as you don’t want it to come loose whilst vacuuming.
In fact, out of all the vacuum hacks I’ve tried, this has to be the most effective. From putting tea bags in my dust canister to trap odors to making my DIY vacuum crevice tool hack, this is probably the most useful of them all.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll suddenly convert to vacuuming floors with a sock on the hose. But if it will save me the trouble of finding a lost earring or prevent stepping on my son's Lego piece on the floor, then it’s worth a try.
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