Cleaning Carpet near the Baseboards!

get down there with a hose type vacuum and go to town. do the best you can and then look the other way.

I don't have a hose attachment, but can disassemble part of my vacuum and squeeze it up to the baseboards, so I don't do that as often as I would if I had a hose. I do use a moist wipe (usually a diaper wipe or wet cloth) and wipe the top of the carpet along the baseboards to pick up dust, cat hair, bug debris, and whatever else is there. I've never had that area turn black.

I got a "rubba scrubba" from flylady.net for the stuff that the vacuum hose can't get.

I have a vaccum with a hose attachement and I use that once a month.

The old fashioned way to take care of that was to simply use a broom to brush out the dust from the edges of the carpet just before you vacuum. Some vacuums have attachments with brushes that are effective for this, but on some the brushes are too soft or the vacuum doesn't have enough suction. Some vacuums come with an edge-cleaner feature, but you need to have the space so that you can always run the side of the vacuum along the baseboard. Coming into the baseboard with the front of the vacuum may not do the job as well.

I used to have the same problem, but several years ago we spent the money to get a Dyson. The suction is always so good with that one that we not only do not need to do anything extra along the baseboards, but we do not need to shampoo the carpets nearly as often either. It seems the get the stuff that tends to live down in the padding. Many years ago I used a super strong vacuum and the suction was so strong that it aged the carpets very quickly. The Dyson just seems to have that perfect amount of suction.

I got one of the new ones with the ball instead of wheels last year for my office. The old one at home continues to work perfectly after more than 6 years and it may be a long time before I need a new one at home, but I sure would love to have that ball feature at home. I got spoiled to it quickly.

I've used vacuums that filter the air through water, the big heavy and loud old Kirby, as well as those models that you can lift with one finger. I hope we never have to quit using the Dysons, unless someone comes up with something even better - like self-cleaning floors.

I'm going to make a guess here that you shampoo your carpets? Really typical since the dirt literally gets pushed to the edges along the baseboards. Ugh, such a pain. Resolve carpet cleaning graules (the one that comes with a scrub brush) may do the trick since it's dry and you vacuum it up. Good luck!