Sweeping the kitchen. Mom had us doing it each night after supper. And before the days of the gas-powered leaf blower, we also swept the front porch every Saturday. Sweeping, back in the day, was considered an essential homemaking skill.

I mention it because yesterday I swept the kitchen in preparation to mop. I like to get on my hands and knees to get into the corners and other nooks and crannies before I use my steam mopper, and this is when I noticed either I’d done a real crummy job of sweeping, or I had used a real crummy broom. “Are you KIDDING me?” I thought, “WHO has the time to sweep TWICE!?”

Turns out, the issue was indeed the broom. Upon close examination, I could see why, after sweeping, so much was left behind. I guess it should be no surprise that this baby is worn out. It’s over 25 years old and has really earned its keep. (No judgment, please.)

So with the idea in mind that it’s time for a new broom, I googled “Best broom.” Loads of reviews showed up. I read ‘em all and then settled on advice from www.thespruce.com. Since kitchen-sweeping is still a common household chore, I thought you might be interested in this broom tutorial, too.

Dena Ogden, associate shopping editor for The Spruce (specializing in appliances, cleaning, organizing, and home tech), explained that a quality broom should be sturdy, with stiff bristles and designed to be easy to maneuver around furniture or other obstacles in the home. The key word here is “quality,” since not all brooms are created equal.

With that criteria in mind, Dena and her team spent 8 hours testing 21 brooms. They gave attention to each broom's design, durability, performance, and value. They identified picks that were well-suited for all-around household use, as well as specific tasks that ail lots of our homes (like cleaning up crumbs and pet hair). They also found great options for outdoor use, that you can use to sweep sand or dust off your patio.

There are essentially three types of brooms. TRADITIONAL usually have 10 to 13-inch heads, with straight or angled bristles, and are great for indoor cleaning. Occasionally, this design doubles for outdoor cleaning, too. PUSH, a broom with a much wider head, is meant to be used to easily clean large spaces. It’s what you'd reach for to sweep a deck, driveway, or sidewalk. RUBBER and SILICONE, are brooms that do an excellent job cleaning up fur, and work like squeegees to collect liquid.

All this said, here’s what The Spruce folks concluded. The Runner-Up for Best Overall Broom was the Libman 211 Extra Large Precision Angle Broom. It’s made in the USA and its flagged bristles are made from recycled stuff. They liked that the bristle shape made it easy to clean corners, the bristles were strong yet pliable, and its accompanying dustpan gripped tightly to the broom handle.

But, it was actually the dustpan that sent this broom to second place. The Spruce testers didn’t like how it had fewer features than the overall winner. It was also more expensive than the overall winner.

Their choice for Best Overall Broom was the O-Cedar Pet Pro Broom & Step-On Dustpan PowerCorner. It could handle far more than just pet-related grime. It easily cleaned up messes of flour, sawdust, orzo, sand, and wig hair. Testers found it picked up everything but the finest remnants of flour and sawdust. The angled bristles efficiently cleaned corners and up against walls. The metal handle was easy to hold and maneuver, while feeling solid and well-built.

And the dustpan was designed so you can step on the handle, holding the pan in place as you sweep debris onto it. (THAT is a cool feature—how nice not to have to bend over to collect the debris!) Also, as mentioned above, it cost less than the Runner-Up ($14.95 as opposed to $21.95). The only thing testers didn’t like was that you do need to put the pieces of the handle together to use it for the first time.

I ordered the O-Cedar broom yesterday after studying a ton of reviews. It’ll arrive today and I can’t wait to use it. Dad used to tell me, “Alice, a craftsman is only as good as his equipment.” I think I bought a good piece of equipment. I’ll report back!

    Alice Osborne
    Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2006
    Email the author! alice@dvo.com