Essentially EmmaMarie
Welcome
Come, sit, relax, and take a few minutes to breathe! My goal is to help infuse your life with inspiration for the everyday. Whether it’s a new recipe, helping your to find your next read, offering a decor tip, or simply sharing helpful hints for everyday life, I hope you will take my invitation to pause for a few minutes in your crazy life and enjoy the simple things of life-for its all the little things that make up this big, crazy, beautiful thing we call life.
How to Vacuum Like a Professional
Vacuuming—it’s probably not a foreign concept to you. Even those of us who hate cleaning and housekeeping, most will probably still break down and run the vacuum cleaner when it starts getting really bad! Running the vacuum cleaner is not rocket science; however, it is something that could still be done better by most people in order to be more efficient and produce better results. Here are a few of the most common vacuuming mistakes that I see being made every day.
Not Going Around the Edges
Vacuuming the main area of the floor is great, but please don’t forget about the edges. So many times I see people have vacuumed the main area of the carpet but they have not taken the crevice tool around the edges of the carpet. Their floor still looks dirty! With the activity taking place in the middle of the carpet a lot of the dirt travels to the edges where, especially if it is a carpeted room, the dirt lodges between the wall and baseboard. If you do not vacuum the edges with the crevice tool, it will stay there. This is why if you vacuum the main area of the carpet but fail to go around the edges your carpet can still look dirty. Little by little the dirt will bounce its way out of the crease between the wall and onto the main part of the floor.
If you have hard floors, I always make the joke that you could just take the crevice tool around the edges and call it a day because most of the dirt will float to the corners and build up there, meanwhile the main part of your floor doesn’t look too bad!
Rollers on Hard Floors
Most vacuums today come with at least two options, a hard floor setting and a carpet setting. Some vacuums even come with three settings: hard floor, low carpet, and high carpet (these are my favorite type vacuums). Please be aware that you don’t want to use the carpet setting on a hard floor, especially a hardwood floor, because it can scratch your floor. While it is generally okay to flash on the roller setting for a second to help suck up a big mess or little particles (such as kitty litter or glitter), you do not want to use this setting all the time on the hard floor.
Picking up the Cord
Have you ever vacuumed a floor, especially a hard floor as opposed to carpet, and turned about and saw more dirt where you just vacuumed? More than likely you were letting your vacuum cord lay on the floor and it caught some of the dirt as you went along vacuuming. A better approach is to loop the cord so you are holding as much of it as possible, vacuum a small area, then turn and release the cord so the cord is laying in a clean area that you already vacuumed. Then proceed to vacuum ahead of where you are walking.
Vacuuming Out of a Room
This is more of a detail but who doesn’t like seeing those neat lines in the carpet from the vacuum? In order to leave the carpet looking freshest, start on the side of the room furthest from the door and vacuum your way out of the room so there are few footprints on the carpet and you can enjoy the room looking even crisper for a little bit!
Conclusion
I hope these tips help to solve any frustrations you may have been battling with your vacuuming! If you have any additional questions or topics you’d like me to cover please shoot me an email at: alainascleaingservice@gmail.com. Until next time!
Classic Titles That I Enjoyed in 2025
The Classics In 2025 it was one of my goals to read several classic works. While I didn’t yet make it through Wuthering Heights (I’m going to try again this year!) I did manage to read several...
The Right Way to Use Magic Erasers
I remember when I first discovered the Magic Eraser. It worked like, well, magic! There were tough scuff marks on the bottom of the fridge in the pizza place where I worked. I had been trying to...
Which Type of Cabinets Are Easiest to Keep Clean?
I have seen many different kinds of cabinets in my day and, as in most things in my life, I have developed very strong opinions about what kind are best and which kind of kitchen cabinets are...
Meet Essentially EmmaMarie
Hi! So nice to meet you! My name is Alaina. “What?!” You say, who is Emma Marie then? I shall tell you. I wanted to start this little blog and I didn’t just want to do my name, I love my name but I wanted to do something a little chicer, a little different, something with a little sparkle to it. While still ruminating on a name for my blog I was listening to an audio book by Jessica Herrin, founder of Stella and Dot. The name Stella and Dot was derived from her grandmothers’ names. That struck a chord within me. Family is very important to me, and I am especially close with my grandma. I started thinking about my grandmother’s name. Velma is my grandmother on my father’s side and while I love her dearly, well, lets just say Velma didn’t have exactly the ring I was going for. But her middle name is Marie. Ooh, I like that, a lot.
Then there is my maternal grandma. Her name is Luemma. An aside; she was named Helen at her birth but she abhorred that name so when she turned eighteen she changed it! Luemma is a mouthful and doesn’t need anything added to it, but Emma? Yes!
As I thought about the name, I realized that the essence of these two women epitomized what I hope to cover on this blog. Velma Marie was the quintessential 1950’s housewife. I say that with all the love and respect in the world, look up perfect 1950s housewife and you will see her picture! The last of five children, she grew up in the 30’s as a little farm girl in Iowa. After high school she went on to major in Home Economics at Iowa state university, ultimately obtaining her Mrs. degree in a union that lasted over 71 years!
Luemma, I never had the privilege of knowing. But here is what I do know about her: she could sing and yodel. Neither of these talents did she pass on to any of her five children. In addition to being a mother she was also a teacher. She then became the sole provider for her family when my grandfather died. She rose to the challenge and raised those five children, all between the ages of 7-13, on her own in the turbulent era of the 1960s.
From these two women I believe I draw a lot of what brings me joy. My love of “housekeeping,” if you will, I draw from my grandma Velma Marie, I love to cook, bake, decorate, and create any variety of things from jewelry to wooden signs. From my grandma Luemma I derive my love of history, reading, learning, and teaching. She passed down to my mother the importance of looking ones best no matter the budget.
These traits and interests sum up what I will primarily talk about here; anything from books to housekeeping, decorating to fashion, history to DIY. It is my hope that these little posts will inspire you and bring you joy. I hope that sitting down to read for a few minutes will feel like a deep breath of fresh air for your soul. I know they will certainly bring me joy to create them for you!