Said It Here

How to get hair and lint out of a broom

Standard plastic brooms trap hair and fibers deep in their bristles during sweeping, forcing people to peel out the gross gunk by hand or resort to tools like a toothbrush. This tedious manual cleanup ruins the experience of sweeping and leaves pet hair and fuzz permanently tangled in the brush.

Overview
People affected9 accounts across 1 forum
Workarounds found15 items attempted
Community agreement442 total upvotes

What the numbers show

Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count

  • People have been saying this in most months since August 2026.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

15 items+ Contribute

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    cleaning out standard brooms with a toothbrush
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  2. 2
    peeling gunk and hair off brooms with hands
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  3. 3
    using traditional palm or branch-based brooms that do not trap hair and fibers
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  4. 4
    Using a seam ripper to slice through tangled hair
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  5. 5
    Using a fork and a straw cleaner
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  6. 6
    Picking the hair out manually with fingernails
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  7. 7
    Using the end of an old comb
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  8. 8
    Scrubbing with shampoo and water
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  9. 9
    Using a pair of pointed slant tweezers
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  10. 10
    Soaking in warm conditioner or shampoo water then scrubbing with a towel
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  11. 11
    Using a vacuum cleaner nozzle and a dry toothbrush
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  12. 12
    Cleaning the residue off the hairbrush manually after every use
    Did this help you?
  13. 13
    Using a screwdriver or scissors to pry out debris
    Did this help you?
  14. 14
    Trying to manually pull or cut hair wrapped around the wheels
    Did this help you?
  15. 15
    Constantly dusting, sweeping, and mopping
    Did this help you?
Tried another approach not listed above?+ Share your workaround ↑

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/CleaningTips9 people · August 2026 – October 2026

“These ones don’t pick up the hair and fibres and hold on to it. Because after I finish sweeping with white man’s broom, I have to clean it out with a toothbrush to get rid of the lint and whatever else.”source ↗

srkaficionado · r/CleaningTips · 328 upvotes

“It’s finding crumbs in the kitchen after eating or seeing hair on the hardwood again the next day that gets old. I don’t want to vacuum the whole place over a little mess.”source ↗

Helpful-Homework · r/CleaningTips · 56 upvotes

“That’s definitely true, I hate plastic brooms for that. It’s so gross to go peeling all the gunk off with your hands after 🤢”source ↗

houseplant-hoarder · r/CleaningTips · 42 upvotes

“There has to be a better way than just yanking out carpet fibers for 30 minutes.”source ↗

DWillys · r/CleaningTips · 9 upvotes

“How can I get these final hair balls out of my hairbrushes?”source ↗

“I have the tool in the second pic, but it only gets out the main hair.”source ↗

“I’ve tried soaking in water to no avail.”source ↗

pawamedic · r/CleaningTips · 3 upvotes

“I dust, sweep, and mop but within a day or 2 there's already dust and dog hair everywhere again.”source ↗

“I just can't keep up with it.”source ↗

“I hate it when people want to come over because I'm embarrassed.”source ↗

Candid-Ad3586 · r/CleaningTips · 2 upvotes

“I just pick it out with my fingernails 🫠”source ↗

Fluffy_Surprise630 · r/CleaningTips · 1 upvotes

“Before and after of brushing my hair. I have to clean it off every single time I brush my hair.”source ↗

Free-Construction688 · r/CleaningTips · 1 upvotes

“I get most of it off, but not all. The Phillips screwdriver head fits, but can't get the screw to move.”source ↗

attachedtothreads · r/CleaningTips · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

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