Stuff I Like: Hardwood Floor Vacuum

When I was probably twelve or so years old, I casually told my mother that I loved sweeping. "It's so relaxing," I believe I said. Shortly after she gave me the nightly chore of sweeping the kitchen and dining room I decided that I actually hated sweeping. That unfortunately did not change at all when I grew up and got married and became the sole cleaner of a house with two dogs. Two dogs who shed a lot.

Our house in Woodbridge was 90% carpet, with only the kitchen and modest entryway containing laminate flooring. (Well, the bathrooms had that too I suppose.) The carpet was a pain in the butt to keep clean with the dogs, but I had strong negative emotions for those hard floors that turned me into a raging lunatic on cleaning days. Have you ever tried to sweep floors covered in dog hair? I mean, really. Have you? Because if you ever have, even once, you probably know everything I'm about to say. The dog hair would tornado and fly everywhere except the path of the broom, and I would spend so much time chasing it around the small spaces trying to just get it in the stinking dustpan. When I would consider the job done and look back on my work, I'd usually still see hair lurking and mocking me. I promise I'm not being dramatic here...this is real life. This happened.

When we bought our Berryville house almost a year ago, it occurred to me very quickly that the ratio was now reversed. Instead of having only two rooms that are hard floors, our new house would have only two rooms in the entire house that are carpeted. The rest are all either hardwood or tile. Although this really excited me - so little carpet to keep clean, hardwood is my ultimate fave, etc. - it also worried me a little for my own sanity. I knew there was no way on earth the traditional broom was going to work. At all. Hubs actually said to me after we bought the house: "you're going to go crazy keeping those floors clean." He knows me.

So I started doing some research. My mom had bought a hardwood floor vacuum a year or more before I went on the hunt, and she had lots of great things to say about it. I didn't end up with the same one she did, but after much research and reading of reviews on Amazon, I decided on the Bissell PowerEdge Pet Hard Floor Corded Vacuum.

Besides the fact that it costs a mere $50 on Amazon, there are so many things I love about this thing. And after almost a year of using it, none of them have faded. Here's my list:

• The unique front end makes it easy to vacuum around awkward objects and get in small places (toilet bowls, the legs of items, deep into corners). 
• It's super lightweight, and extremely easy to push, lift, and maneuver. 
• The cord is more than long enough (our mudroom/laundry room doesn't have any outlets so I use a short extension cord to reach the whole room, but other than that it's not a problem at all around the house). 
• The fact that it has a cord is a huge benefit if you have a lot of hard floor surface to clean. There are lots of vacuums that are battery charged instead, and I knew that with the amount of floor that I would be cleaning regularly it would be extremely inconvenient for it to die halfway through the house. Having it plug in means you never have to worry about that. 
• The bagless canister that collects the dirt/hair/what have you is compact but holds a surprising amount of stuff. I can do my entire house, full of piles of dog hair, without emptying it. I have to empty it after doing the whole house, but not during. 
• The canister is also really easy to take out and empty/clean. 
• The fact that this vacuum is specifically designed for pet hair means that there are no spinning wheels and brushes on the bottom of the vacuum; it's just a plastic and rubber opening that sucks everything up. This keeps the dog hair - and everything else - from getting caught and tangled and wrapped around brushes like in other vacuums.
• You can vacuum low-pile area rugs with this vacuum, although it's not the same as a normal vacuum and you have to use a specific kind of finesse. I have a couple of small rugs in the kitchen - in front of the stove and sink - and when they get little crumbs or dirt on them it's easy to clean them up by lifting the vacuum and slowly pulling the vacuum backwards over the rugs. I've found that going forward like you normally would doesn't really work. It's not perfect, but if you don't feel like pulling the big carpet vacuum out it does do the job. 

In short, this thing is fantastic. I highly recommend it, especially if you have dogs that shed. I can definitely and confidently say that it's one of the best investments we've made.

(Nope, I'm not sponsored in any way. Just a heartfelt supporter of the product.)