8 Cleaning Tools You Should Have at Home Somewhere, if You Don’t Already

To clean every single part of your home — from the big spaces, like the whole kitchen, down to the smaller spots, like the dust bunnies in the corner of your room — it can be helpful to have tools that are well-suited to conquer every single mess. 

That’s why we put in the work to find the top eight specialty tools you need to have in your home somewhere. Each one will help you clean your whole home, like an upholstery cleaner to use on all your furniture, or a duster that can extend up to six feet to get dust high and low.

Here are the winners of Apartment Therapy’s 2025 Cleaning Awards — specifically specialty cleaning tools to use all over your home, including an extendable duster, handheld vacuum, and the game-changing cleaning find we think everyone should know about.

When your home gets messy, it’s time to get cleaning. Each year, Apartment Therapy spotlights the very best cleaning tools to help you get the job done with our Cleaning Awards. We vacuumed, scrubbed, and tackled messes big and small until we discovered which cleaning tools truly shine — and sweep the competition. We selected 30 cleaning essentials across five categories that have all been tested and vetted by our editors. 

Want to see more winners? See here for the full list of winners for the 2025 Cleaning Awards.

All prices were accurate at the time of publishing, but may have changed since then.