This Old-School Cleaning Tool Is Making A Comeback, And It’s Surprisingly Satisfying

When I moved into my current apartment, the old tenants had left a variety of random items, ranging from a freaky puppet to a broken window AC. They did, however, do me one of the biggest favors of my adult life by leaving a standing broom and dustpan set.

I had never thought much about brooms, other than the general resentment I feel toward all cleaning apparatuses. And as I was about to toss the standing broom with the other broken appliances, I saw a TikTok from one of my favorite mental health-friendly content creators, therapist and author KC Davis, singing the praises of her own broom and standing dustpan.

In the video, Davis says she used to procrastinate about sweeping. Yet, she’s found that her standing broom — one that locks into a flat-bottomed dustbin with a long handlethat eliminatesthe need to constantly bend over when cleaning up a mess — has made her hate sweeping less and, therefore do it more.

“Sometimes the answer is not, ‘Just make yourself try harder,’ Davis said in a TikTok. “Sometimes it’s just ‘What accommodation do I need?’”

Sweeping with a standing dustpan is such a simple, old-school idea, and yet I had never thought of it as a hack to make cleaning a little easier on the body. After watching Davis’ video, I started to reach for the old, kinda grimy standing dustpan that was left in my apartment. To my surprise, it made sweeping up way less daunting and removed so many of the smaller tasks — bending, brushing, walking to the trash can — from the task.

With my standing broom I literally just sweep the mess into the dustpan box and it’s over. When I’m feeling really tired, I don’t even have to empty the box every time I use it. The little dust bunnies can just chill out in the dustpan until I