This Is the Easiest Way to Clean Door Tracks

No matter how thorough you are, there are always more things to clean around the house. Some of them you may just overlook because they’re a little inconsequential and hard to do. Take, for example, the track your sliding door runs in. I’m here to tell you that you can clean that bad boy. You can clean it easily. Here’s what to do.

Use a toilet paper roll to clean your door tracks

Vacuums are indispensable and useful, but they’re not perfect, especially for cleaning tight little spaces. If you’re fortunate enough to have a tapered attachment, it still may not fit into the smallest spot you need to clear out. And don’t get me started on those brush attachments, which just kind of move the dirt around and sacrifice suction. To clean tiny spots like the tracks your doors ride in, you really need a toilet paper roll.

You just stick it to the end of your vacuum like you would any other attachment, as shown in this Instagram Reel from A Clean Bee. When I saw this video, I was dubious, since so many viral cleaning hacks are bunk, but I vowed to try it anyway. If you want to try it, learn from the first mistake I made: I didn’t have a toilet paper roll on hand. Call me crazy, but I do throw them away when I run out of TP. Thus, I had to wait a few days for one to become available because while I wanted to try the trick, I didn’t want to unspool a bunch of toilet paper to do it. If you want to give this a shot, set an intention now to hold on to your next cardboard roll, so you’re not scrambling for one when you need it.

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

This works because the tip of the roll is malleable. You can squish it to be as small as you need to get in any spot while the end connected to the vacuum itself stays large enough to maintain the suction from the machine.

How to use the toiler paper roll to clean small spaces

In the video, A Clean Bee stuck the roll over her vacuum stick, which is what I thought was going to happen when I finally got the chance to test this out. She indicated she had a Dyson, which is also what I have, so I didn’t think it would be a problem, but as it turns out, the stick on my Dyson V8 Animal was too big for the roll to fit around. I was worried this would impact the suction, but I modified my approach and pushed on. I bent the roll so it would fit inside the stick, not around it.

Then, I just vacuumed the dirty track of the patio door. It was that easy. There are no more steps. It worked, it worked well, and it worked fast. The suction was great, even with the folded-up modification, and the end of the roll fit into all the sections of the track. It pulled up all the dirt with ease.

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

After that, a quick wipe down with vinegar and water finished the job and the track looked… well, not brand new, but much nicer, which is what you can hope for with a years-old piece of outdoor hardware. Overall, I recommend this hack with no reservations, since it prevents you from having to sweep, struggle with a vacuum, and generally labor over little spots.