By: Liane

Liane — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 20:36:15 +0000

Hi Becky etal,
I have 3 vacs in my house and one in my motorhome. The oldest is a Kenmore with all the tools, a very long cord and a very sturdy extension wand. It’s probably 25 yrs old. I use it sporadically for the sort of continuous cleaning in a single room I do quarterly. . I hate dragging it around behind me. So I do the entire room top to bottom including the mattress, and I I use it to vacuum tops of ceiling fans (not the blades, you have to chase those around). I vacuum the blinds and draperies, the closet door track, the window track and it goes nicely under the bed and some furniture in bedrooms. One bedroom takes about 1 hr. The next vac I got was a small upright that my mom bought for $600. Yikes. It’s an Oreck. It’s perfect for both the weekly hall runners, area rugs, and the odds and ends lint and small scraps of stuff that seem to materialize out of nowhere. It’s part of my weekly routine on Wednesday. I use my crosswave in the kitchen and bathrooms although I do need a pad type for around the toilet and other narrow places. I damp mop the bath and kitchen daily so they get a weekly cleaning plus the daily maintenance. So….this takes me to my Dyson Animal 10 cordless. I like it better as a handheld for small jobs like crumbs in the pantry, thread and fabric scraps in my sewing / quilting room, stairs and a quick someone’s coming cleanup. It cannot go the entire distance on one tank of gas, so it gets used for detailed monthly jobs. Like the crumbs in the silverware drawer or the cobwebs in the corners along the crown molding and it’s my go to tool for baseboards, closets in general, my car, my motorhome which is why I bought it in the first place. I like to clean up the floor in my motorhome- it’s a magnet for all sorts of crumbs and dog hair and weed seeds stuck to the dog and bits of straw and to use a vacuum I need 110 which means running the generator which annoys people and can violate early morning noise regulations. We do a far amount of dry camping meaning no power water or sewer. So I take the fully charged Dyson and use it daily instead of a broom. The entire rig is carpeted except a tiny patch in the bathroom and in front of the sink. The other vacuum in there is a plug in dirt Devil. I use it on trips where we have hookups.

I think that an upright is great for rooms with carpets and a cannister is good as an all around tool. But we got rid of carpet except three bedrooms and it’s not contiguous — each room is a 120 to 200 sq ft patch. It’s not conveniently vacuumed with a tool that cannot do both types. The cordless is awesome, but it’s a pain charging and waiting. That’s why I bought a corded Crosswave. It has its own limitations— taking it apart to clean it is a pain so it gets used weekly. I bought it on your recommendation but a family member got one first and that sealed the deal. We are moving to a house with more carpet than wood so I may just put the Dyson in the motorhome permanently. There are no ceiling fans and there are 10 ft ceilings which are really hard to clean. The Dyson is way too heavy to hold the whole thing overhead. I am toying with getting a monthly cleaning service for the stuff that 5’3” me can’t reach.

I hope by sharing all of this it may spark some ideas in readers. But to sum up, I don’t think a cordless is enough to handle a 2400 sq ft house.

By: Ruma

Ruma — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 15:59:50 +0000

Actually, the best gadget we have is the “new” Dustbuster type vacuum! I use it all the time to do a quick crumb pickup, get crumbs off the counters, dust off thee baseboards, dog fur along the baseboards, and a quick car clean-up. I had a Dyson cordless purchased at Costco for a “good” price but it only lasted a year. For the cheaper price, the hand vacuum is the better deal.

Comments on: Can a Cordless Vacuum Cleaner Make Daily Cleaning Easier?

By: Liane

By: Ruma