Vacuuming up those stubborn pine needles after the holidays might sound like a simple solution, but it’s actually one of the worst things for a standard floor cleaner. Christmas tree needles can cause serious damage to the machine!
This article explores why Christmas tree needles should never be collected with a regular household vacuum and highlights smarter, safer alternatives to keep floors clear.
Can Pine Needles Be Cleaned with a Floor Cleaner?
When it comes to pine needles, they should be kept away from ordinary household cleaning machines.
Unlike typical dust or dirt, Christmas tree needles come with challenges related to their length, rigidity, and even flammability. Their sharp edges can clog hoses and intakes, reducing suction and straining the motor. Since many cleaners aren’t fully sealed, the flammability factor becomes a risk if sparks occur inside.
On top of that, sticky resin clings to brushes and filters, further reducing efficiency. For everyday messes, a household cleaner is perfectly fine, but Christmas tree needles demand a different approach altogether.
How To Pick It Up
The most reliable way to deal with Christmas tree needles is by turning to a shop wet/dry vac. For households with children and pets, owning one is well worth the investment.
These heavy-duty machines are built to handle a wide variety of messes, from scattered toys and crumbs to stubborn pet hair. And let’s be honest—during the holiday season, xmas tree needles won’t be the only thing needing attention.
Unlike standard household cleaners, shop models are sturdier and better sealed, since they’re designed to handle even liquids. That extra durability makes them a far safer and more effective choice for tackling xmas tree needles.
Best Shop VAc To Use
The best shop vac is the one you use, so it needs to be handy and quick to get out.
Overall, I consider a cordless shop vac cleaner to be the best shop vac, and have a detailed comparison guide as to why here.
You’ll find that you use the shop vac for a lot more than xmas tree needles, and it may even become your go-to vac for most things around the home.
Other Ways
A shop vac isn’t the only way to pick up xmas tree needles, here is a list of other ways to get xmas tree needles off your floor.
- Broom: A simple but effective broom will help, and not just any broom. You want to use a rubber broom like this one here (Amazon Link Ad) to help with cleaning pine needles from your floor.
- Leaf blower: You can get a few leaf blowers that also have a suction feature with a bag. Much like a vac cleaner, you suck up the pine needles, but the leaf blower can handle the larger and stickier mess.
- Enlist the kids: You can make a game of it, whoever picks up the most pine needles wins!
- Carpet rake: If the pine needles are on the carpet, you’ll need to use a carpet rake (Amazon Link Ad) to get them all up. A carpet rake is like a giant comb for carpets and will fluff up the carpet, so you can further get the smaller pieces left behind.
- Sweeper: For pine needles, you can use a carpet sweeper. They’re often manually powered and don’t have tubes that can get clogged or no electricity to create a spark. It’s basically a step above sweeping.
Anyone one of these options can help, but overall, the shop vac is the best advice you’ll find and helps with other messes you’ll run into.
How To Remove Tree Sap From Carpets
If you have a Christmas tree in your home, the xmas tree needles can be a problem, but so can the tree sap.
The video below does an amazing job showing you how to get tree sap out of your carpets.
Vacuuming Christmas Tree
Christmas tree needles are pine needles, and it’s best you don’t vac them with your normal vac cleaner.
The best way to get up pine needles is with a shop vac, as covered in this post. You can also use a broom, carpet sweeper and many more things as covered above in this post.
How To Keep A Christmas Tree From Losing Too Many Needles
The fewer xmas tree needles on the floor, the less clean-up you’ll need to do, so what are the ways to keep them from falling in the first place?
The video below gives great tips to keep your Christmas tree from losing too many needles fast.
One trick that doesn’t get enough attention is “needle lock” that many of the tree farms use to keep the xmas tree needles from coming off. It’s basically Elmer’s glue and water, mix it, then spray it on the tree. It’s far safer than using hair spray, which is bad, as the Mythbusters figured out, but works the best to keep xmas tree needles from falling off your Christmas tree. You’re basically paper mache-ing the needles to the tree.
Robot Vacuums
A robot vacs can pick up xmas tree needles, as found here, but I don’t suggest it.
Yes, the robot vac will pick up xmas tree needles, so can a regular vac, but it’s the damage or danger that is the real issue. The sap destroys the moving parts of the robot vacuum, and with pine needles being so flammable, it just not best to use a robot vac.
Outside Pick Up
If your yard is covered with pine trees, or you have a Christmas tree outside, you may be wondering how to get rid of the pine needles.
There are two good options:
- Leaf blower.
- Yard sweeper.
The leaf blower is the go-to for many, but if the pile of needles is large enough, most leaf blowers can’t handle it. Sure, you can get some power leaf blowers at a good price, but they are often gas powered or require an extension cord. You could even rent the walk-behind leaf blowers if you got a lot of area to cover.
The other option is a yard sweeper (Amazon Link Ad), which tends to be more quiet and more delicate.
You also have the shop vac for smaller areas, and when set up correctly, it can be used to clean wet messes.