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The Casabella Wayclean Wide Angle Broom remains our favorite broom. And we’ve added several new top performers to this floor-cleaning category, including the Libman 2125 Step-On Dust Pan with Molded Cleaning Teeth and the Bona Microfiber Dust Mop. Bottom Track Roller
While testing hundreds of brooms and dustpans over the past eight years (both in the office and in our everyday lives), we’ve found that these cleaning tools are often unnecessarily awkward to use. We wanted to find brooms and dustpans that would help eliminate any discomfort associated with sweeping—from shuffling backward while crouching to getting dust in your face and hit in the forehead with a handle. And we discovered some great options.
With pliable bristles and superior balance, the Casabella Wayclean Wide Angle Broom swept better than competitors, and it was the most comfortable to use.
Bulkier and a bit less flexible than some options, the Libman 211 Extra Large Precision Angle Broom is a tough and efficient sweeper.
The Libman Step-On Dust Pan has a grime-catching black lip, a large trash capacity, and a comfortable-to-hold handle. And it has a convenient foothold, so you’ll do less bending or getting down on your knees.
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A lobby broom’s long-handled dustpan eliminates the need to constantly bend and squat while cleaning. And the OXO Good Grips set is the best one we found.
If you’re seeking an inexpensive broom-and-dustpan combo, the HDX 13 in. Extra Wide Angle Broom with Dustpan is the best choice.
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The Made By Design set took care of all visible matter on our tile floor. And the dustpan is cheaper and smaller than our solo dustpan pick, so it’s great for tighter spaces.
The Bona Premium Microfiber Mop has an almost magnetic attraction to dust.
We’ve been long-term testing the O-Cedar microfiber mop for eight years, and it’s still a solid performer.
With pliable bristles and superior balance, the Casabella Wayclean Wide Angle Broom swept better than competitors, and it was the most comfortable to use.
After eight years as our top pick, the Casabella Wayclean Wide Angle Broom is still the single best sweeper we’ve tested, with a bristle quantity, design, texture, and density no other broom could match. Since the 2014 version of this guide, Casabella has changed the model slightly (it hasn’t updated the online photos to reflect this), but the slightly smaller head isn’t any less powerful. The broom’s 2,548 bristles (by our count) are densely packed and distributed evenly, and they have flagged (split) tips, which excel at picking up fine, dusty debris. This broom cleaned spills of cat litter, flour, rice, and diatomaceous earth (which we used to simulate dust particles of varying size) better than any other model we tested. The Casabella broom was also the most balanced, and its handle was the most comfortable to hold of any model we tested. And the bristles are thinner than those on other brooms, so the head feels soft and pliable. This broom doesn’t come with a warranty, but our long-term testers report that it’s still going strong. Also, the Casabella broom doesn’t come with a dustpan, but we have that covered.
Bulkier and a bit less flexible than some options, the Libman 211 Extra Large Precision Angle Broom is a tough and efficient sweeper.
The Libman 211 Extra Large Precision Angle Broom left no large detritus behind, but when it came to fine-dust pickup, it couldn’t quite match the Casabella broom. The bristles are thicker and more rigid than the Casabella’s. And at 15 inches, this broom’s head is wider than our main pick’s head (which is 11 inches). That extra bulk sacrifices some flexibility, but it can be an advantage when you’re sweeping up big, heavy messes. The Libman 211 broom comes with a one-year limited manufacturer’s warranty (PDF).
The Libman Step-On Dust Pan has a grime-catching black lip, a large trash capacity, and a comfortable-to-hold handle. And it has a convenient foothold, so you’ll do less bending or getting down on your knees.
May be out of stock
Libman’s souped-up 2125 Step-On Dust Pan with Molded Cleaning Teeth is the best dustpan. Of all the models we tested, it’s by far the most capable tool for getting dust and debris off the floor without having to constantly scoot back as you go. This dustpan’s foot-long opening is wide enough to accommodate the heads of both of our broom picks, and the handle clips to each (though it’s a little more secure on the Libman broom than on the Casabella). The 2125 Step-On’s teeth allow for hands-free removal of anything gross or particularly persistent on a broom’s bristles.
A lobby broom’s long-handled dustpan eliminates the need to constantly bend and squat while cleaning. And the OXO Good Grips set is the best one we found.
While working with dozens of dust-gathering tools in 2022, we began to love lobby-broom sets more and more. The long handle on a lobby broom’s dustpan allows you to sweep up debris without hunching over. Most lobby brooms have fairly short handles, but the OXO Good Grips handle extends from 35 inches to a whopping 55 inches, counting the head. So folks of different heights should find it comfortable to work with. And it outperformed all of the other lobby brooms we tested (except when it came to the cat litter, which this tool couldn’t collect in a single sweep).
If you’re seeking an inexpensive broom-and-dustpan combo, the HDX 13 in. Extra Wide Angle Broom with Dustpan is the best choice.
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If all you want is an inexpensive full-size broom-and-dustpan set, get the HDX 13 in. Extra Wide Angle Broom with Dustpan. The broom and dustpan both passed our flour, diatomaceous earth, rice, and cat litter tests. Annoyingly, the dustpan didn’t perform as well as our Libman dustpan pick, and it fell off the broom easily. But otherwise the HDX set is easily the most effective budget combo we’ve found.
The Made By Design set took care of all visible matter on our tile floor. And the dustpan is cheaper and smaller than our solo dustpan pick, so it’s great for tighter spaces.
The Made By Design Hand Broom and Dustpan Set cleared the flour and diatomaceous earth in a single sweep, leaving no remnants under the rubber lip. The advantage and disadvantage of a set like this one is that you’re up close and personal with whatever you’re sweeping. When you use a hand broom, it’s much easier to get beneath chairs and tables, but you also might get a dust bunny to the face. This set normally costs less than $10 (or you can just get the clip-on dustpan for around $4). The hand broom clicks securely into the dustpan, and a thin, flexible loop lets you store the set on a hook.
The Bona Premium Microfiber Mop has an almost magnetic attraction to dust.
Even a great broom needs a dust mop to help finish the job, and the Bona Premium Microfiber Mop is the best we tested. With a 16½-by-4½-inch footprint, its large head covers wide swaths of floor and has flexible ends to reach corners and baseboards. The Bona mop comes with two different, washable microfiber pads. The box describes the fluffy pad as intended for use on hardwood floors and the other pad for cleaning stone and tile. We found the fluffy pad and the flat pad to be equally effective at gathering flour and diatomaceous earth on tile, though the fluffy one was better at catching and gathering the particles themselves. The flat pad left no particles behind, but it pushed them into a pile rather than collecting them in the fibers. Overall, the fluffy pad performed the best.
We’ve been long-term testing the O-Cedar microfiber mop for eight years, and it’s still a solid performer.
Over the past decade, the O-Cedar Hardwood Floor ’N More Dual-Action Microfiber Flip Mop has helped our staffers to clean up after kids, pets, and themselves. It had a slightly harder time cleaning up heavier particles than the Bona mop did, but the O-Cedar mop performed similarly to our top dust-mop pick in other tests. The O-Cedar dust mop has a double-sided head (instead of two separate pads, like on our pick), but they serve the same functions. O-Cedar offers a year-long warranty.
This guide began in 2014, in Wirecutter’s former New York City office in Manhattan’s Chinatown. When senior staff writer Kimber Streams first swept through the field of broom, dustpan, and dust-mop reviews, it was sparse. They interviewed Debra Johnson, a home-cleaning expert with Merry Maids, and Green Cleaning Coach Leslie Reichert, a housekeeping expert who teaches people how to clean effectively and in environmentally friendly ways. Kimber also surveyed hundreds of Wirecutter readers and organized a four-person testing panel. And they built the broom philosophy and knowledge base that this current version is built upon.
Over the years, we’ve gone on to research 446 brooms, dustpans, and dust mops, and we’ve tested 60 products firsthand. We have also continued to long-term test all of our original picks. Associate staff writer Ellen Airhart spent several months testing products for this update to the guide.
In 2022, we scoured retailers’ and manufacturers’ websites and compiled spreadsheets of 25 brooms, 51 broom-and-dustpan sets, 72 dust mops, and 73 dustpans. We visited physical stores like Home Depot, Target, Lowe’s, and Walmart to find out which brooms are widely available from different retailers.
Kimber learned that synthetic bristles are best for brooms because they’re immune to rot and can be cleaned with warm, soapy water. That means corn or horsehair bristles are out. The bristles must have flagged ends—intentionally frayed tips designed to capture dust, dirt, and hair at the broom’s sweeping surface. (In our original survey and perusal of user reviews, we learned that many people think this fraying is a sign their broom is wearing out—not so!)
The best brooms have angled bristles that can reach into corners and beneath furniture, and they have a storage loop for hanging—you should never store a broom resting on its bristles. The head should be large enough to sweep up a half-cup pile of cat litter. We eliminated brooms that were difficult to find from a reputable retailer or that were too expensive. You don’t need to pay much for a great broom.
During testing we realized how much we hate bending over to use a dustpan and how awkward it is to use a full-size broom to gather dirt into a pan. Many people don’t have great grip strength and may have just accepted a broom handle banging into their shoulder or head as part of the cleaning process. Lobby-broom sets solve this problem; they have long broom and dustpan handles, so you can clean without squatting. We decided to add them as a new category in our guide.
We did a preliminary sweep with many of the brooms in the aisles of the stores we found them in. Cleaning expert Leslie Reichert told us to pay attention to how the bristles are connected to the head of the broom: “Don’t be afraid to give them a tug. If they pull out in the store, the broom won’t last long in your home.” We pulled and tugged, and if any broom failed this test, we put it back.
Many people have just accepted a broom handle banging into their shoulder or head as part of the cleaning process.
Generally, we found that brooms with more bristles and denser heads were more effective than sparsely bristled brooms. But individual bristle stiffness and length also played a part in the overall texture of a broom. Long, soft, floppy bristles fling dust around, rather than making a neat pile, and thick, stiff bristles can’t reach into cramped corners. We were looking for a Goldilocks broom: as dense as possible, not too soft, not too stiff, but just right.
We were on the hunt for the perfect dustpan, too. A great dustpan needs a wide enough mouth to match the broom’s head. It should also have a rubber lip on the front edge; this crucial lip should sit flush with the floor, creating a ramp into the dustpan. So you can sweep stuff in with fewer strokes, instead of having to sweep, scoot the dustpan back, sweep, scoot, sweep … and so on. A good dustpan also needs a ridge on the inside to contain debris, or everything swept in can slide right back out. It should also have a decent capacity; you don’t want a shallow dustpan.
A standalone dustpan should be able to clip to your broom, and it should be sturdy enough that it doesn’t bend much or break under moderate pressure. A comfortable grip is a nice perk, and a good dustpan set should have a hole for hanging.
We were looking for a Goldilocks broom: as dense as possible, not too soft, not too stiff, but just right.
A broom sweeps up large, heavy particles and gets into tight corners. And a dust mop does a second pass, to capture all the dirt, dust, and hair the broom couldn’t take care of. To determine a dust mop’s important features—how well it cleans and how long it lasts—we looked at the material, backing, and style of the cloth, as well as at the dust mop’s frame and maneuverability.
Microfiber is the best material for a reusable dust mop because it’s the most effective at attracting and absorbing dust, and it lasts the longest when cared for properly. Cotton is the worst option because it can rot, it stretches when washed, and it must be treated with chemicals to attract and hold dust. Synthetic microfiber blends have none of those drawbacks. The backing of the dust mop head can also be cotton or synthetic, and you’ll want a synthetic backing for the same reason—cotton stretches when washed and rots as bacteria consume the organic material.
Dust-mop cloths come in a few styles: cut end, looped end, and chenille. Cut ends are prone to fraying, and looped ends are a little better at grabbing dust. But our early tests found that chenille microfiber heads—the kind that look like a colorful forest of little worms—are the most effective because the nubs are better at getting into cracks and corners. Chenille heads also hold a lot of dust, so they can clean more before needing a wash. In our 2022 tests, we had success with the long, thin polyester microfiber threads on the Bona mop’s pads.
Rather than looking for a dust mop with a specific type of frame, we considered anything easily maneuverable that could reach underneath furniture and into corners, with a sturdy handle and a smooth steering mechanism. We sought one with a dust-mop cover that could be removed without dust going everywhere, one that could hold a lot of debris before needing to be washed, and one that could survive dozens of washings. We also factored in the price of replacement covers.
We immediately dismissed any items that came in parts and took more than three minutes to assemble. And we didn’t want to read any instructions; we’re talking about brooms, not cabinets!
For our 2022 tests, we called in and tested 30 brooms (18 of which had dustpans), six dust mops, and 21 dustpans (five of which came with a small brush). Our original testing started in 2014 and is ongoing for our picks that remain the same—the Casabella broom and the O-Cedar dust mop.
We tested each broom by throwing half-cups of flour, diatomaceous earth, clay cat litter, and rice on a slightly textured tile floor and then sweeping it all up. We chose flour and diatomaceous earth because they have a similar consistency and texture as dust, and we chose cat litter for its heavy, dense particles of varying sizes. We wanted to sweep up broken glass, but we settled for raw rice, since it was close enough in size and shape and didn’t endanger anyone. We noted how effective brooms and dustpans were at sweeping up the different materials, and we measured how much residue each left behind.
We eliminated 25 of our test brooms either because they were poorly designed or were just plain terrible at sweeping. We solicited opinions from Wirecutter staffers who’d been using our previous picks. We also washed our top picks in water.
We tested 30 brooms by throwing half-cups of flour, diatomaceous earth, clay cat litter, and rice on a tile floor and then sweeping it all up.
To test dustpans, we swept half a teaspoon of flour into each one. This showed us how well each dustpan worked with our recommended broom and how effective each was at picking up, holding, and not spilling fine particles. After eliminating the dustpans that were abysmal at cleaning or way too small for the broom, we filled the remaining ones with water to measure their capacity.
For dust mops, we gently sifted a half-teaspoon of flour on a tile floor; this simulated a reasonable (but challenging) amount of settled dust. Then we washed each of the six dirty dust-mop heads individually on warm and hung them overnight to dry. We tested the last three a second time with another half-teaspoon of sifted flour and another trip through the wash.
With pliable bristles and superior balance, the Casabella Wayclean Wide Angle Broom swept better than competitors, and it was the most comfortable to use.
The Casabella Wayclean Wide Angle Broom has stood the test of time. It’s the most effective at sweeping particles of all sizes and has the best balance and grip of anything we tested. The bristles truly make this broom rise above the rest. They have a superior density, quantity, thickness, and stiffness compared with the bristles of every other broom we tried. Beyond that, this broom meets all of our requirements—angled, flagged, synthetic bristles and a storage hook—and it was universally loved by our testing panel. Casabella has changed the broom over the years: The hanging cap is thicker, and the bristles count decreased overall, but the amount of bristles per clump rose. This broom is still our top performer.
Compared with the 29 other brooms we tested, the Casabella broom was the most effective at sweeping up a half-cup of flour, diatomaceous earth, cat litter, and rice. It left the least residue behind when sweeping up the tiniest particles of flour and litter, and it was especially effective at getting dust out of cracks in the floor. Simply put, it continues to be the best sweeper we’ve tested.
Why is this broom so effective? Most of the magic is in the bristles: The Casabella broom has 2,548 (98 clumps with 26 bristles each, arranged in staggered rows). Because the bristles are so dense and well arranged, they create a thick forest for sweeping and trapping dust, ensuring that few particles are left behind. The Casabella broom’s head is about twice as thick as that of our runner-up pick, the Libman 211, which has 1,190 bristles.
You might expect that a broom with a larger surface area would be faster at sweeping up messes. But during our tests, we found that brooms with larger heads tended to have stiff bristles that were less effective at sweeping up tiny specks. The Libman 211 broom actually has a larger head (15 inches wide) than the Casabella broom’s head (11 inches wide). Both heads are similar in thickness (our Casabella pick’s head ranges from 1½ to 2 inches thick, and the Libman 211 broom’s head ranges from 1¼ to 2 inches thick). And yet the Casabella broom is the superior sweeper.
Despite the Libman 211 broom’s wider head, the Casabella broom excels because its sweeping surface is exponentially denser, with more-even distribution and a higher total bristle count. Plus, each of those 2,548 bristles has a flagged end to help it trap dust and hair. Cleaning expert Leslie Reichert told us flagged bristles are best for indoor cleaning and dry messes because they “pick up small particles much better and don’t tend to leave much behind.” The Casabella broom’s bristles are flagged much higher up the bristle, not just at the ends. Compared with the Libman 211 broom, it took the Casabella broom fewer sweeps to gather a mess into a pile, and it left less residue behind.
The Casabella broom’s head doesn’t have as extreme an angle as those of some brooms we tested, but it’s angled enough to get into corners, around furniture, and into odd kitchen crevices. The Casabella broom’s fluffy bristles are great at dragging crumbs and dust bunnies out of corners, but this broom isn’t as good as the Libman 211 at reaching under furniture.
Of all the handles on brooms we tested, the Casabella broom’s handle was the most comfortable to hold, due to the soft grip, made from foam EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate). This comfy grip can be moved up or down on the pole, but that requires some firm twisting and tugging. The upside is that the grip doesn’t slip or slide easily, so it won’t shift or fall while you’re sweeping.
The 47-inch gray pole is made of powder-coated steel, and it’s topped with an EVA tapered plastic handle that’s comfortable to hold.
The Casabella broom feels sturdy and well made; nothing rattles or moves around during normal cleaning or with a rigorous shaking. It arrived in three parts, and assembly was not completely seamless; we had to unscrew and re-screw a part more than once. Since this took less than three minutes, we let it pass. Some reviews report that these different parts loosen over time; we will monitor this as we long-term test the newest iteration of this model.
We were concerned that the broom’s denser bristles would make the head harder to clean with water, but that wasn’t the case. Water and dirt sluiced right out under the faucet, and we left it to dry overnight—good as new!
The Casabella broom doesn’t come with a dustpan, but our original guide’s survey found that most people don’t want a dustpan-and-brush set—they want to use a broom with a dustpan they choose. A better combo than all of the alternatives: pairing the Casabella broom with the Libman 2125 Step-On Dust Pan with Molded Cleaning Teeth. Note that since the Libman 2125 pan is designed to attach to brooms made by Libman, it does slip a little on the Casabella. We recommend storing them separately or clipping the dustpan to the bottom of the broom, where it won’t move down. In our testing we found that attaching the dustpan to the grip on the Casabella’s handle led to indentations over time.
When Kimber and several of our original panelists first began using the Casabella broom, the broom had a tendency to flick or fling debris like the cat litter. We initially had the same issue with the new model. But, as in the original testing, we were able to adjust our sweeping technique to account for that. One tester called the Casabella “a broom with a learning curve.” Because the bristles are soft, gentle sweeping is more effective than using vigorous strokes.
Bulkier and a bit less flexible than some options, the Libman 211 Extra Large Precision Angle Broom is a tough and efficient sweeper.
If our main pick is unavailable, or you have a huge, heavy mess on your hands, we recommend the Libman 211 Extra Large Precision Angle Broom. It’s not as effective at sweeping up dust as the Casabella Wayclean Wide Angle Broom, and the Libman 211 is heavier, with bristles that are a bit more stiff. This broom also lacks the comfy grip of our top pick. However, among the brooms we tested, the Libman 211 was easily the second best at sweeping.
In a side-by-side one-sweep comparison, we found that the Libman 211 and the Casabella brooms left similar amounts of flour on the ground, and they did a similar job of picking up the diatomaceous earth and cat litter. A thin line of rice escaped a single sweep by the Casabella broom, but the Libman broom’s wider head caught it.
Compared with the Casabella broom, the Libman 211 broom has a steeper angle and longer, flagged bristles (the Casabella’s bristles are 4½ to 5½ inches long; the Libman 211’s are 6 to 6½ inches long). The longer, angled bristles make it easier to get into awkward corners, but their stiffness hampers the broom’s ability to reach under furniture and into corners.
The Libman 211 broom’s 15-inch sweeping surface is about 4 inches wider than the Casabella’s, and both heads have similar depth. But the Libman 211 has only 1,190 bristles, about half as many as the Casabella broom. The Libman 211’s wider head hastens sweeping, but its lower bristle density and less-effective arrangement mean you have to make more sweeps to pick up the same amount of debris as the Casabella broom. Bottom line: The Casabella broom is easier to use.
At 54 inches tall, the Libman 211 broom is about an inch shorter than the Casabella broom. Like the Casabella broom, the Libman 211 is well made and doesn’t rattle or flex with ordinary use (or with vigorous shaking, or after being thrown into a bin with 29 other models for storage). The Libman 211 broom is also a better choice for outdoor sweeping. Because of the stiffness of the bristles, the Libman 211 is preferable to the Casabella broom when it comes to cleaning leaves or other debris on a paved driveway or wooden deck. We’re currently working on a more in-depth guide to outdoor brooms.
This broom’s handle is made from steel, and the bristles are made from recycled bottles. The Libman 211 broom has a one-year manufacturer’s warranty.
The Libman 211 broom’s handle doesn’t have soft padding like that of our top pick. Some of the bristles arrived bent, and we were not able to manipulate them back into place, but this didn’t affect the broom’s overall performance. (Over the course of our testing, a few of the Casabella broom’s bristles also bent, but this didn’t affect our top pick’s performance, either.)
The Libman Step-On Dust Pan has a grime-catching black lip, a large trash capacity, and a comfortable-to-hold handle. And it has a convenient foothold, so you’ll do less bending or getting down on your knees.
May be out of stock
The Libman 2125 Step-On Dust Pan with Molded Cleaning Teeth is the best dustpan to pair with the Casabella Wayclean Wide Angle Broom. (Note that while the Libman 2125 dustpan clips onto the handle of both the Casabella and the Libman 211 broom, it’s a bit loose on the Casabella.) This dustpan has a foot-wide mouth—big enough to work for both brooms. Built-in footholds ensure that this dustpan sits flush with the floor, to stop dust and debris from slipping past. And we found that with the added pressure of someone’s body weight, the least residue was left behind. We loved not having to bend over while sweeping into the pan.
In our sweep test with flour, the black rubber lip created a flawless seam between the dustpan and the floor. When we swept the flour into the pan and then moved the pan back, the line where the dustpan had been sitting looked like it had been cut with a razor. In comparison, nearly all of our other dustpans let some flour get under the lip (which meant we kept having to pull the dustpan back to gather the powder).
The Libman 2125 Step-On dustpan has a few useful design touches that set it apart from the competition. The rubber footholds solve many of the problems created when you’re trying to stabilize a dustpan and sweep with a broom at the same time. We liked having both of our hands free to sweep while we held the dustpan still with our feet. This dustpan is designed so that the pressure of a foothold is enough to hold the lip flush with the floor, so nothing can get under it. The teeth at the back of the pan worked well at getting powder off the broom bristles. We appreciated that they were closer together than teeth on some other models, which seemed to miss some of the grime.
At 64 ounces, this dustpan had the second-largest capacity of those we tested, and among the non-lobby-broom dustpans, it had the largest capacity. By comparison, the HDX dustpan’s capacity was a little less than 24 ounces, and many dustpans we tested held even less.
The Libman 2125 dustpan is more difficult to find in physical stores than standard Libman dustpans are. The dustpan’s handle sticks to our Libman 211 broom pick, but it’s slightly loose on the Casabella broom, and it isn’t particularly comfortable to hold. The front corner chipped toward the end of our rough testing. But we determined that this injury didn’t affect the dustpan’s functionality, and we didn’t find any user reviews complaining of similar issues. The Libman 2125 dustpan is bulky and not likely to win any minimalism design awards. And it’s also expensive for a dustpan.
A lobby broom’s long-handled dustpan eliminates the need to constantly bend and squat while cleaning. And the OXO Good Grips set is the best one we found.
Lobby brooms contain a dustpan with a long handle. You’ve likely seen them before—perhaps an usher using one to sweep up popcorn in a theater or a janitor using one in an actual lobby. Over the course of dozens of sweeping tests, we got tired of bending over and grew to appreciate the design of these sets. You can stand straight while sweeping small piles into the dustpan, which you hold in place with the other hand via its attached pole. To us, this seems preferable to kneeling over a typical dustpan with a small handle while trying to sweep with a large broom (which usually requires two hands to operate). It can be uncomfortable to work while kneeling over, and dust is more likely to puff up into your face. The lobby broom solves all of these problems.
We evaluated lobby brooms in much the same way we judged other brooms and dustpans, with some additional considerations. With standard brooms, we had two hands on the pole, but lobby brooms require you to grasp the dustpan handle with one hand and the broom with the other. This means weight matters—for maneuverability, you want a set that’s light but sturdy.
We liked the versatility and performance of the OXO Good Grips Large Sweep Set with Extendible Broom. The handle can sit at what we found to be the most common lobby-broom height (35 inches), or it can extend to 55 inches (about the same height as our broom pick). The broom and dustpan fit securely together and rest upright (the broom head sits above the bottom, so there’s no pressure and wear on the flagged bristles). The pan can flip up to hold the contents or down to rest on the floor. The broom head is 9½ inches wide, just 1½ inches smaller than the Casabella broom’s head.
The OXO Good Grips lobby broom performed best in its category in our sweep and dustpan tests. With one swoop, the broom was able to sweep up half a cup of both diatomaceous earth and rice. It had more trouble with flour (not unusual) and cat litter, an indication that it struggles slightly more with heavier messes. This was true of all the other lobby brooms we tested. So if you’re looking for a heavy-duty workhorse, you’ll likely be better served by combining our Libman 211 runner-up broom pick with our Libman dustpan pick.
The OXO Good Grips dustpan handle has a clip that holds securely onto the dustpan for easy storage. We found that if we left the pair clipped together and standing up, it was hard to knock them over (annoyingly, some of our other lobby broom pairs would randomly fall over). Many dustpans have teeth at the back, to remove dirt from the broom bristles, but the teeth on the OXO Good Grips pan were particularly long and easy to weave through the broom. The extendable handle locks securely in place at any length.
OXO Good Grips offers a year-long warranty on the material and workmanship.
The OXO Good Grips broom struggled to collect cat litter in a single sweep. To sweep heavier material from areas that require a bit more maneuverability, like under furniture, we would stick with the Casabella broom and Libman 2125 dustpan. The OXO Good Grips set is also the most expensive broom-and-dustpan set we tested, but we think it’s money well spent.
If you’re seeking an inexpensive broom-and-dustpan combo, the HDX 13 in. Extra Wide Angle Broom with Dustpan is the best choice.
May be out of stock
For this version of our broom guide, we wanted to replicate a common situation: standing in a big-box store and grabbing the least expensive broom that looks like it will work just fine. We tested six cheap brooms from stores like Dollar General and Walmart, and the results were mostly as nightmarish as we expected: They unscrewed at the connection between the pole and the broom head, bristles shed, and the whole thing would just generally fail at sweeping. But sometimes a cheap broom is a necessary quickie purchase, and Home Depot’s HDX 13 in. Extra Wide Angle Broom with Dustpan will work without falling apart.
The HDX set was the second-cheapest of the broom-and-dustpan sets we looked at. And it works fine. The broom was able to sweep up diatomaceous earth, cat litter, and rice without issue, and it left a minimum streak of flour (about the same amount as our other broom picks). The dustpan measures 13 inches across and sits flush with the floor, but it doesn’t have a rubber lip. We let this slide because it didn’t let debris slide under the lip.
Frustratingly, the dustpan doesn’t have a snug fit when attached to the broom handle. It’s loose enough that a few aggressive shakes can cause it to fall off, and the handle isn’t particularly comfortable to hold. The broom has a hole for hanging, but we worry that it might be too small for some hooks. Also, at a little under three cups, the dustpan’s capacity is the smallest among dustpans we tested.
The Made By Design set took care of all visible matter on our tile floor. And the dustpan is cheaper and smaller than our solo dustpan pick, so it’s great for tighter spaces.
If you don’t have space for our other broom-and-dustpan picks—or you want a small set of tools for quickly sweeping beneath chairs, tables, and other hard-to-reach spots—get Target’s Made By Design Hand Broom and Dust Pan Set. You’ll have to bend over or kneel while completing your cleaning task, but you need just one hand to hold the broom while using the other to hold the dustpan steady (much easier than trying to hold a large broom while you’re stabilizing a dustpan).
Made By Design’s full-size brooms performed poorly in our sweep tests, and expectations were low for its smaller offering. So we were pleasantly surprised when the dustpan aced our one-sweep flour test. It performed nearly as well as our Libman 2125 dustpan pick, and we did not have to scoot it back to retrieve any flour left under it. The thin rubber lip looks slightly floppy, like a jellyfish on land, but when it’s doing its job, it presses flush to the floor. No other dustpans (besides our Libman pick) performed as well. With all of the other small sets we tested, we had to keep sweeping, scooting them back, sweeping, scooting them back … until we hit the wall. The Made By Design dustpan, on the other hand, made the job easy. There are teeth at the back of the pan, in case you need to wipe something from the broom that you don’t want to touch with your hand.
We liked the hand broom’s large storage loop (which is similar to the one on our Casabella broom pick), and the handle is also nicely grippable. The hand broom and dustpan fit together securely. We think this is a nice set for a small area that needs frequent sweeping, such as an indoor front mat. This set has a year-long warranty, similar to the Libman 2125. The dustpan holds six cups, which is impressive considering its size.
There’s only so much you’ll want to sweep up while sitting or kneeling on the floor. You can’t cover large areas quickly, and with a small set like this one, your face ends up being closer to whatever you’re trying to sweep up. The upside is that your proximity to the grit ensures you’re more likely to truly clean everything, and you won’t have a tall broom handle bonking you on the head as you work.
The whisk’s bristles are not frayed, and we wish we could have swapped in the broom that comes with another set we tested (the HDX Dust Pan and Whisk). But we decided to prioritize dustpan performance, since we think that having to sweep a few more times is less annoying than having to continually scoot a dustpan back while squatting or kneeling on the floor.
The Bona Premium Microfiber Mop has an almost magnetic attraction to dust.
Brooms and dust mops work best as a team. First the broom sweeps up all of the large, heavy particles and gets into tight corners. Then the dust mop makes a second pass, to capture all of the dust and hair the broom couldn’t get. The Bona Premium Microfiber Mop is our favorite for the task. Many people use a Swiffer Sweeper, but our testing has found that product to be ineffective and wasteful compared with a dedicated dust mop. The washable, reusable pads that come with our pick work much better.
The Bona Microfiber Dust Mop has a wide head with detachable pads that catch flour and diatomaceous earth better than any dust mop we tested. The mop comes with a fluffy gray polyester dusting pad and a second cleaning pad (with much shorter nubs of microfiber that function more like a good broom).
We had an easy time assembling the Bona dust mop, even with our strict under-3-minutes-with-no-instructions ease policy. We found constructing this mop to be intuitive, with the different pads each fitting onto the head via Velcro strips. (Many dust mops have pads that wrap around the entire head, but in our tests the Velcro strips provided a sturdier and more secure fit.) The dusting pad does the job of a traditional dust mop: catching and storing debris in the strands. The blue-and-white cleaning pad caught the flour and diatomaceous earth, but it seemed to hold less of it in the pad. If you happen to find yourself without a broom, the cleaning pad is a decent substitute when it comes to moving stuff around. As a dust mop the Bona model outperformed all other test models using only its fringy gray pad.
The Bona dust mop has a large surface area (18 inches across and 5 inches deep—about 1½ times as wide as a Swiffer), and it can cover a wide swath with only a few sweeps. Along with some other popular dust mops, our runner-up pick, the O-Cedar dust mop (a previous top pick), left behind streaks of flour and dust. But particles stuck to the Bona dust mop’s fluffy pad as if it were magnetic. Thanks to flexible ends that curl up, the head is also nimble enough to pick up dust from corners and baseboard moldings.
The Bona dust mop fits under raised furniture that’s higher than 2 inches, to clean out any dust bunnies lurking underneath. Our pick is easy to steer, not loose and rattly or stiff and challenging to turn, like some of the other models we’ve tested. The handle has well-placed, slightly soft cushions, and it is adjustable up to 50 inches (at its shortest, it’s 32 inches).
The Bona dust mop and its replacement pads are available from most retailers (they are sold individually or in packs that include a third pad, targeted for laminate and vinyl, which we have not tested). And the replacement heads are a bit less expensive than those of competitors.
It was a little difficult to remove Velcro pads from the frame after cleaning without releasing puffs of flour and diatomaceous earth into the air. This didn’t disqualify the Bona dust mop, since all dust mops, including our former top pick, have a similar problem. The same thing happens when you empty a stick vacuum. And we found the best solution is to remove the pad over a trash can and then throw the pad directly in the wash. Debra Johnson from Merry Maids also suggested removing the pad outside or in a bag. Bona claims that its pads need replacing only after about 500 washes. We’re unable to test this because it would require washing a single pad every day for over a year and a half. We’ll report back on how the Bona dust mop holds up over time.
We’ve been long-term testing the O-Cedar microfiber mop for eight years, and it’s still a solid performer.
Over the past eight years, the O-Cedar Hardwood Floor ’N More Dual-Action Microfiber Flip Mop has helped many Wirecutter staffers as they clean up after kids, pets, and themselves. In our most recent round of testing, we found that this mop had a slightly harder time cleaning up heavier particles than the Bona did, and the O-Cedar left some streaks of flour. But it performed similarly to our top pick in other tests.
This dust mop has a double-sided head (instead of two separate pads like on the Bona), and it’s designed to flip from one side to the other as you go. The blue side is covered in chenille nubs made from a microfiber and synthetic blend. These chenille fingers are great at getting into cracks and holding onto lots of dust. The other side has white microfiber strips and alternating blue strips, also made of blended microfiber. In our tests, we found the blue chenille side to be the most effective at picking up the majority of the dust. The white side was useful for making a thorough second pass. It isn’t pure microfiber, but the synthetic yarn doesn’t negatively impact durability, and the O-Cedar cloth was better at cleaning than some of the pure microfiber cloths we tested.
When we originally researched the O-Cedar dust mop, we were concerned that the flipping mechanism would be loose and uncooperative, making the dust mop difficult to steer. But we found that the polypropylene resin frame has two thin, hollow strips that make the head top-heavy, so the frame is easy to flip along its horizontal axis by simply lifting the handle.
With the cover on, the frame measures just under an inch tall, so it will fit under most raised furniture to clean out dust bunnies. (The handle and steering mechanism can also lie completely flat and are shorter than the frame with the cover on.) It stands about 50 inches tall, and the plastic-coated steel handle doesn’t retract like the Bona’s handle.
Because the O-Cedar mop’s cloth has a large surface area and deep chenille nubs, it needed to be washed every two weeks only, after cleaning 500 square feet of a tester’s apartment weekly. Of course mileage will vary based on the size of your space and how dirty it is. O-Cedar offers a year-long warranty.
Replacement dust-mop heads are available, but we’ve found the pads are durable, aside from some stitching issues on the refills (detailed below). Several other dust-mop heads frayed or fell apart in the wash, but the O-Cedar mop’s original pad has held up for years of continual use by at least two of our testers. The chenille nubs and microfiber pad never snagged on wooden floors, a problem we encountered with the Swiffer and a few other dust mops. We found in our 2022 testing that the O-Cedar cloth heads were difficult to affix to the frame and came loose in the process of dusting; the pads on our top pick did not come loose.
The O-Cedar mop’s refills don’t have the best build quality. There’s a small loop that O-Cedar told us is designed to help pull the head on and off the frame. (We think the loop is also useful for hanging the dust-mop head to dry.) The loop worked well for hanging the cloth, but when we used it to lightly tug the cover off the frame, the weak stitching on one side of the loop broke. The next time we washed the O-Cedar’s head, the loop came off entirely. This isn’t a dealbreaker because the loop isn’t crucial, but we were annoyed that it broke so easily.
As with that of the Bona mop, the O-Cedar fabric is difficult to remove without releasing some dust. Use caution when unsticking the mop’s Velcro; this can send a puff of pollutants into the air. Once the Velcro is gently undone, slip the cover off the frame and throw it straight in the wash.
Finally, we found that the pole—which screws into the steering mechanism on the frame—can unscrew if you sharply jerk the handle to the left (counterclockwise) when turning the dust mop. This is annoying, but it’s also avoidable if you use smooth, calm strokes.
Tons of people own and love the Swiffer Sweeper, but we don’t think it’s a good option for most. Before we explain, let’s start with a clarification—it’s a dust mop with disposable replacement clothes instead of ones that are washable and reusable.
During our original testing, we used a Swiffer Sweeper with three Swiffer sheets to clean a 500-square-foot apartment. Meanwhile, the O-Cedar mop handled the same mess twice and had to be washed only every two weeks. Using a Swiffer Sweeper to keep the place clean translates to using 156 Swiffer sheets, or three 52-sheet packs, annually.
Merry Maids told us it doesn’t use the Swiffer Sweeper—or any other disposable cleaning product—because the costs add up. “The expense of disposable products is not profitable for home cleaning services and may be a drain for homeowners as constant replacement is necessary. Merry Maids’ preference is microfiber dust cloth pads because you can launder and reuse them.”
Beyond costs, the Swiffer Sweeper is just not as effective at cleaning as the Bona or O-Cedar dust mops. The Swiffer Sweeper is effective at picking up dust, dirt, and cat hair, but it can’t get into cracks or corners as well as our picks because it uses flat sheets instead of a textured cloth.
The Swiffer Sweeper also feels cheap and poorly made compared with most dust mops we tested. Its snap-together pole arrives in four segments that assemble into a rattly, flimsy handle, which flexes under light pressure and is uncomfortable to hold. Our Bona mop pick has a solid aluminum pole that doesn’t creak or flex under ordinary pressure.
While researching this guide, we discovered the Hanitom Lazy Mop Slippers and became obsessed. We found that we loved shuffling around in the fluffy house shoes while picking up dust, and the floppy beige ringlets felt distinctly Muppet-like. The ringlets are made of coral fleece (a heavier fabric than polar fleece) and chenille (a top choice for dust-mop material). The bottoms of the shoes come off easily, and you can put them in the washer, like regular dust-mop pads. The bottom line? The shoes aren’t effective enough to replace a good dust mop, but they are fun to wear and will actually capture dust if you slide across the floor Risky Business–style. From our prior experience of owning a similar product, we found you can’t cover nearly enough ground to truly clean a floor before dust-mop slippers load up with debris. Scooting yourself along a wall or stretch-dancing your way into corners is also awkward. But it might make sense to wear these in a room kept clean with regular vacuuming and dusting.
The HDX 12 in. Large Angle Broom and the Great Value Basic Broom failed the full spectrum of our sweep test. They failed to pick up flour, diatomaceous earth, rice, and cat litter. The Yocada Heavy-Duty Broom, the Essentials Handle plus Angle Broom Head head (which are purchased separately and available only in bulk quantities online), and the OXO Good Grips Any-Angle Broom were all able to grab the diatomaceous earth but not the other three materials.
The Amazon Basics Heavy-Duty Broom was noticeably flimsy upon arrival. The bristles were thin and barely flagged. It did not perform well in our sweep tests.
We found that the Made By Design Floor Broom was poorly made. Small hairs pulled out when we tugged on the bristles. And the head is small.
The Rubbermaid Commercial Angle Broom does not have any sort of handle for storage, and it performed poorly in our sweep tests.
We were excited to test the Swopt wooden handle and angle broom head but were disappointed by the rough handle with an awkwardly placed grip.
The Libman 206 Precision Angle Broom with Dustpan is a smaller version of our runner-up pick. This broom had an inconsistent number of bristles per clump, which thwarted our plan to count the bristles of every broom we tested. This inconsistency is a drawback, but this is a bad broom for other reasons: It’s half an inch shorter than our runner-up pick, the Libman 211, and it has a smaller head. The bottom line: Our runner-up broom is better at sweeping.
The O-Cedar Power Corner Large Angle Broom is similar to the Libman 206 Precision Angle Broom (above), but it has a wider head and stiffer bristles. We found the angle was great at getting into corners and under furniture, but the stiff bristles were worse at sweeping up fine debris, and they flung dust.
The Scotch-Brite Angled Broom has a foam insert that’s somehow supposed to make the broom better at sweeping, but it does the opposite. In our tests the insert prevented the broom from getting into corners and around oddly shaped things like door jambs, and it was terrible at sweeping up everything.
The Quickie Large All-Purpose Broom has a wide head. But it left lots of residue behind when we were sweeping flour and cat litter. When we swept piles into the dustpan, its long, springy bristles flung debris.
We eliminated the Radley & Stowe Angle Broom and Dustpan Set with Dual-Textured Bristles, the AmazonCommercial Pivoting Upright Lobby Dust Pan, the YANXUS Broom and Dustpan Set, and the Kelamayi Upgraded Broom and Dustpan Set because they were difficult to put together.
The TreeLen Broom and Dustpan Set fell over easily, and the broom did not have flagged ends.
The dustpans that came with the O-Cedar PowerCorner Max, Made By Design Pivoting Head Floor Broom with Clip-on Dust Pan, Libman Precision Angle Broom with Dustpan, Made By Design Floor Broom with Clip-on Dust Pan Set, Libman 14-in. Poly Fiber Multi-Surface Angle with Dustpan Upright Broom, Moxie 12-in. Plastic Angle with Dustpan Upright Broom, and Libman Lobby Broom and Dustpan failed to pick up flour in one sweep, which our picks were able to do. The powder got trapped under the rubber lip or the body of the dustpan, so the tester had to pull the dustpan back and try again.
The broom in the Casabella Upright Sweep Set performed surprisingly poorly on our sweep test, failing to grab flour, diatomaceous earth, cat litter, or rice.
Every dust mop model we tested, except for the Bona Microfiber Dust Mop, failed to pick up diatomaceous earth in one sweep. Since this test helps us learn how the dust mops deal with both fine and heavy particles in a single sweep, that ruled out the HDX Giant 22 in. Microfiber Wet-Dry Flip Mop and the Great Value Microfiber Flip Mop. Our runner-up pick, the O-Cedar Hardwood Floor ’N More Dual-Action Microfiber Flip Mop, picked up the earth in a few sweeps—significantly better than the others.
The Libman Freedom Floor Dust Mop has a good chenille cloth, but its head is about the size of a Swiffer’s. So it didn’t pick up as much dust as the Bona mop.
The Scotch-Brite Microfiber Hardwood Floor Mop has one of the best frames for easy cloth removal. But it has a terrible cover—the worst we tested.
The Libman Microfiber Wet & Dry Mop’s shallow microfiber cloth wasn’t effective at picking up dust.
Full Circle’s Mighty Mop has a sturdy wooden handle and a well-designed frame, making cloth removal simple. But we found that its flat cloth wasn’t as good at cleaning as chenille. Plus, it’s expensive.
The Quickie Bull Dozer Extra Large Dust Pan is a high-quality dustpan that worked well. Ultimately, it does not have the footholds of our Libman pick or the slightly lower profile of the Made By Design dustpan.
The following models failed our one-sweep flour test: the Great Value Dust Broom & Pan, the Libman 906 Dust Pan with Whisk Broom, the Sterilite Plastic Dustpan, the HDX 10 in. Dustpan and Whisk Set, the OXO Good Grips Dustpan and Brush Set, the Scrub Buddies Blue Plastic Dustpan, and Lowe’s Project Source Step-On Dustpan.
The Genuine Joe GJO02406 Heavy-Duty Plastic Dust Pan does not have a groove in the handle, so it can’t stick to broom poles.
The Rubbermaid Lobby Pro Upright dustpan was difficult to lock, which is necessary for dumping out detritus.
Full Circle’s Clean Team Dustpan & Brush Set is the most expensive set we tested. It doesn’t have much of a ridge to keep debris in the dustpan, and the brush’s soft bristles fling dust.
The O-Cedar Anti-Static Premium Dust Pan is a decent dustpan. But we found its handle uncomfortable to hold and that flour dust can slip beneath its rubber edge and remain trapped there.
Brooms are easy to maintain, but most people don’t know the basic rules for doing so properly.
Rule one: Don’t store your broom with its weight on the bristles. Hang it up using the storage loop, or prop it against a wall with the handle facing down. When a broom is left sitting on its bristles, the bristles can bend, weaken, and even break, shortening the broom’s lifespan.
Rule two: Wash your broom once in a while! Washing a tool that’s used to clean up all manner of gross things may seem like common sense, but many people never think about it. Once every few months—or whenever your broom gets gunky—take it outside and give it a good shake. Then wash the broom’s head with soap and warm water in a bucket, sink, or even your bathtub, making sure to get deep in all the bristles. Shake off as much water as you can, and then leave the broom to air-dry (bristles up!) overnight. Voilà! You have a clean broom.
Dustpans have similar care rules. Don’t store it resting on the rubber lip because you can permanently warp that lip and ruin your dustpan. Hang up your dustpan. Clean it—along with the brush, if it comes with one—using warm soapy water; then shake and air-dry.
Some dustpans are staticky, and the static can cause particles to jump straight out of the dustpan and back onto the floor—super frustrating! We’ve found that if you just keep using a dustpan, static will lessen over time. (We used a dryer sheet to wipe down some of the most staticky dustpans we tested, but this didn’t make a significant difference.)
The proper care and maintenance of microfiber-dust-mop heads is a little more involved, since microfiber is tricky to wash. When it’s time to clean yours, follow these directions:
Now that you know how to take care of your cleaning tools, how do you know when it’s time to replace them with new ones? Both cleaning experts told us that a broom’s condition will be visual. When the bristles are broken, bent, or falling out, and the broom is more of a hindrance than a help, it’s time to get a new one.
One of our new broom picks, the Libman 211 Extra Large Precision Angle Broom, is intended for both indoor and outdoor use. We took it for a spin outside of our Long Island City, New York, offices and liked how it performed. In fact, some of the Libman broom’s shortcomings (like the stiffness of its bristles) mattered less when we were sweeping leaves and debris off concrete, versus sweeping fine dust off a smooth floor. But since none of the other broom picks are designed specifically for outdoor use, we had nothing we could fairly compare the Libman XL broom to. So we’re starting to do research for a guide to outdoor brooms and dustpans.
This article was edited by Joshua Lyon and Harry Sawyers.
Rotary Screening Bucket Debra Johnson, Home Cleaning Expert at Merry Maids, Interview