“I use your spot cleaner often, but is there anything I can do to enhance the process?”

John’s Answer:

Yes there is. If you don’t mind a little extra physical effort lugging it around, add a Wet-Dry Shop Vacuum to your spot cleaning arsenal. I’ve passed this tip on to several people and they tell me the results are excellent.

They’re available at all the home-improvement stores and come in several sizes. Get one with a big enough motor to provide good strong suction (3 horsepower). They all come with great attachments, but for spot cleaning, use the equivalent of the crevice tool (it has a wider mouth).

Use your shop-vac to remove any solid in the spill. Then, after applying the mild detergent in our spray bottle and massaging it into the stain, suck it out instead of blotting. Follow this with a couple clean-water rinses (sucking the rinse water out each time) and you’ll have done a far better job of spot removal.

Shop-Vacs don’t have dirt bags to change; you just pull off the top and dump the waste (wet or dry) in the trash can. They’re also great for car interiors, potting soil spills and of course, my favorite, the home workshop.