This Lazy Baseboard Cleaning Hack Is Brilliant, and It Will Make You Laugh

I have to admit something: When I woke up this morning, I was not entirely sure what a baseboard was. I knew it had to do with the floors in some way, but it was just one of those terms I never bothered to look up. Meanwhile, I’ve spent years wondering if there was a better way to get all the dust off that raised edge that sits between the floor and the walls. Humbling! 

Now, thanks to a cleaning tip I found that’s equal parts quite silly and extremely practical, I not only know what a baseboard is, but also feel very confident I can clean my baseboards thoroughly without having to lean down — or, more importantly, buy anything new.

I came across this clever cleaning method in an Instagram Reel by Via Shoemaker (@vialifts). You see the video creator in her home with the camera pointed at the floor with the baseboards in view. She takes one of her socked feet and places it on the baseboard, and then slides her toes from one end of the baseboard to the other. She then takes off that sock and places it directly into her washing machine nearby. 

It’s one of those things that’s so obvious, it feels surprising that you never thought to do it before. After all, when you dust a surface, you usually use a cloth like a paper towel or a microfiber towel of some sort — and what is a sock but a foot-shaped cloth? You can see in the video that there are many socks already in the washing machine, so you don’t have to use the same sock the whole time. You could even keep a pile of old socks to dedicate to this very task, or just clean your baseboards every time you’re about to run a load of laundry.

Using a sock is an efficient baseboard cleaning method, but there’s also something childlike about giving yourself permission to sweep your sock-covered toes across essentially the entire perimeter of your home. It almost feels like you’re misbehaving or goofing off, but it’s completely the opposite — you’re cleaning! 

However, I understand if you don’t love the idea of getting so many socks all dusty. Obviously, doing laundry directly after cleaning your baseboards is a good way to ensure that dust doesn’t just sit around, and it means you’re basically doing two chores at the same time. 

If you’re still not into it, you can also try covering your vacuum’s brush attachment with a dryer sheet and running it along your baseboards, or simply wiping a dryer sheet along your baseboards in the same way you’d use a sock, although the dryer sheet method does lose points for requiring you to bend over.