Clean and Decorate for Halloween Simultaneously With a ‘Broomba’

Getting motivated to clean in anticipation for the fall holiday season is hard enough. At the same time, you also have to decorate and find a way to entertain your kids. One adorable TikTok trick manages to accomplish all three by turning your robot vacuum into a “Broomba.” This idea one part Halloween arts-and-crafts, one part tidying up, and one part just amusing — though it takes a little work on your part, it’ll look like a broom is sweeping your home of its own magical accord, and that’s as funny as it is seasonally appropriate. Here’s how to do it.

Make your “broom”

TikTok creator @hauz.and.co has demonstrated the steps to turning your robot vacuum in a Broomba, and it all starts with the fake “broom.” To assemble it, you’ll need the following materials:

• A tiki torch
• Wood-toned paint
• Two foam circles about the diameter of your vacuum
• Glue
• Raffia
• Velcro strips
• String
• A festive ribbon
• Scissors

Hack off the top of your tiki torch, leaving the prongs, and paint the handle with your wood-toned paint. Glue your foam circles together and attach Velcro strips to the bottom. Attach your tiki torch to the foam circles by placing them inside the leftover prongs and gluing each prong to the foam. Reinforce with some twine or string, and tie some additional string around the small part of the pronged section so it doesn’t splay open.

Arrange your raffia strips around the stick, facing it away from the prongs and toward the long end. Attach with glue, then flip it over so it covers the prongs and tie around it. Is it starting to look like an old broom with wonky bristles? Add another ribbon near the top, where the raffia is folded over, to give it some charm and hold everything together.

Attach all that to your vacuum

Place the other side of your Velcro strips on top of your robot vacuum and attach to the corresponding strips on the foam part of the “broom.” Don’t start your vacuum yet, though: First, trim the raffia so it doesn’t get caught in the broom’s bristles and arrange it around the edges of the machine. To get the bristles to stay in place, you can adding a little glue to some of the strands to make them stiffer.

Cleaning is immediately more festive, and you can let the vacuum loose during your Halloween party or when trick-or-treaters come knocking for maximum spooky season vibes.