How to Clean Up Small Glass Pieces

When you are working on a stained glass project, after you get all of your glass pieces cut, you end up with small pieces of glass all over your work surface. Before going onto the next step of the project, be sure to thoroughly clean up the glass pieces. Broken glass can be very dangerous.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Pick up any large pieces of glass, carefully, using your fingers. Put the pieces into a container to hold onto for future projects. When you are looking for a small piece to finish a project, check your container of extras first.
2. Use a vacuum cleaner to clean up the glass pieces. If you have a bagless vacuum, dump the canister, containing the broken glass, into a brown paper bag and then crumple it up and throw it in the trash. The paper bag prevents the glass from ripping your plastic trash bag, and makes it less likely you get cut on the glass when taking the trash out.
3. Sweep the glass off of your work surface, and into a dustpan, with a small broom, if you do not have a vacuum handy. Again, dump the glass from the dustpan into a brown paper bag before throwing it into the trash.
4. Wipe the surface with a wet paper towel after you have either vacuumed or swept the area. The wet paper towel removes any small pieces that might still be left behind.

Tips & Warnings

• Instead of a wet paper towel, you can also use the sticky side of a piece of masking tape, or a fresh slice of white bread, to pick up small shards of glass left behind. Just press the tape or the bread onto the area where the glass is. When you lift it up the glass sticks to it.