How to Clean up Shattered Glass

Shattered glass - it happens to the best of us. Dropping a wine glass, a bottle of olive oil, or, in my case, a mason jar full of black coffee on a Monday morning as I am walking out the door makes for a very unpleasant and unsafe mess to clean up. What steps should you take?

• My clean up process started with absorbing the coffee with my little kitchen throw rug (thankfully $5 at the Christmas Tree Shop and not $50 at West Elm) and also scooping up the majority of the larger glass shards across my beige tile floor. That was only half the battle, though. Then I was faced with a river of stubborn glass slivers.
• My next step was pulling out the vacuum cleaner. This seemed to be a most important step. The vacuum picked up what a paper towel would never get.
• Following the vacuum, I wet some paper towels and wiped up the floor. Got some all purpose cleaner, sprayed, rinsed, repeated. The vacuum made an encore appearance as well.

20 minutes later, I was on my way out the door. I had to get to work... this was no way to start my week. When I got home, I did a once over with the vacuum again and followed up with a swiffer. Then I looked up some helpful glass cleaning up tips to file in the back of my mind for the next time this happens because I am sure there will be a next time:

• Vacuum (score)
• wet paper towels while wearing rubber gloves (oops safety first kids)
• roll a flashlight on the floor so it will set off a sparkle on those little slivers you missed
• drag cotton along the surface, this will also pick up remnants (remember those rubber gloves)
• run bar soap across surface, same idea as the cotton (gee rubber gloves keep popping up with these tips)

One big NO: Do not use a reusable towel to clean this mess up. Think disposable. If you do use a towel, be willing to part with it at the end (it's been a crazy, wild ride, $5 rug from Christmas Tree Shop).