How you can keep your body and mind flexible when cleaning

Prepare yourself a cup of coffee or your favourite tea and turn on some music that gets you into the cleaning mood. A positive atmosphere will support your positive mindset. Additional tip: Turn off your phone and your TV. This ensures you’re fully focused on cleaning. Now you’re ready to start your cleaning routine.

Mindfulness is all about being in the moment without thinking about the past or worrying about the future. It’s about giving your monkey mind a break and let it relax. By focusing on the moment, you can make the process of cleaning be something pleasant. Bring your attention to the pace of your breath or the movement your arm makes when vacuum cleaning. Practicing mindfulness when cleaning not only helps you find meaning in ordinary moments. You also end up doing a more thorough job. Additional positive effect: Your mind can become more flexible, too. Studies have shown, that a regular mindfulness practice improves the cognitive flexibility.

When going through your cleaning routine to keep your home hygienically clean, not only make sure that your mind stays flexible. Also pay attention to your physical health – especially your back. As we all know, home is where the greatest accident risk is. We are aware that we should sit up straight at our desks – and also that we should bend our knees when lifting heavy things. But we often forget to be mindful of our body while doing housework.

Our spine is flexible yet stable at the same time. However, a wrong movement or permanent incorrect strain – also in the household – can cause back pain. For example, abruptly lifting heavy items can, at the worst, result in a disc prolapse.

There are several simple things you can do and appliances you can use to protect your back when cleaning or doing other chores around your home. The main focus is on avoiding bending your back too much as doing so constantly can result in lower back pain. Therefore, the main (body) weight should always be carried by your lower body. Kitchen counters, for example, should be adapted to the user’s height. Experts recommend there should be 15 centimetres between the user’s elbow and the work surface. This ensures a straight spine when cooking or doing the dishes. Also, when loading and emptying the dishwasher or the washing machine, make sure to kneel down to avoid pressure on the lower back. If you need to change directions when moving, always do so with your feet and whole body. This also applies to vacuum cleaning.

Whenever it comes to sweeping or vacuuming floors, make sure to have adjustable devices at hand. Especially flexible vacuum cleaners like our Bosch Unlimited 8 can be adjusted to every situation. By simply clipping off the suction tube, you can transform the device into a handheld model enabling you to freely vacuum floors as well as above eye and head level. Thanks to many accessories that can be easily exchanged, you can easily keep an upright posture when doing the housework. When wanting to clean areas that are located above shoulder or eye level – for example when vacuuming shelves or corners on the ceiling – make sure to work with tubes, flexible extension hoses and further accessories. Try to not lean your head too far back as this can put too much strain on your neck vertebrae.

When vacuuming floors, make sure your legs are moving back and forth along with the vacuum cleaner while working in constant speed to remove dust and dirt. Whether you need to vacuum floors, underneath sofas, upholstery, stairs, or dust the top of a picture frame: Due to their great flexibility, multi-use handstick vacuum cleaners can be transformed into a handheld device by just clipping off the tube to support your back to stay upright, flexible and ensure practical cleaning on any level.

It’s not only about avoiding back pain when cleaning and vacuuming. It’s also about avoiding unnecessary stress on your hands, wrists, and arms. Ergonomics have become a major topic in recent years – also when it comes to cleaning. Cleaning buckets as well as vacuum cleaners are available with ergonomic handles that ensure less stress on wrists and hands while optimally distributing forces between body and device.

Whether it is about mind, body, or equipment – flexibility is key to support your optimal cleaning routine.
To stay truly flexible, check out our Bosch Unlimited 8 vacuum cleaners and all its specialised nozzles, tubes, and extension hoses to support healthy and flexible cleaning in every nook and cranny inside your home or car.

Bosch Unlimited 8 enables cordless and flexible vacuum cleaning without compromises.