Typical Filipino handmade brooms in Banaue. Brooms are cleaning tools consisting of fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle. In Asian countries there is often a distinction between a "hard broom" and a "soft broom", named for the types of fibers used. Soft brooms are made for sweeping the walls of cob webs and spiders, whereas hard brooms are made for sweeping dirt off sidewalks.Photograph: Uwe Aranas