Some time ago I bought a handheld Dyson vacuum cleaner. I hadn't been in the market for one - I was shopping in Costco, it was a good price, was designed to cope with animal hair, and when I saw it, I thought it might help with the stairs.
All our downstairs is solid flooring. Our bedroom and the bathroom is solid flooring. The stairs, landing, and spare bedrooms are carpeted. The upright vacuum clearner, lives upstairs. We have a Henry stored in the utility room, and he comes when we're doing DIY, or I'm cleaning the fireplace, or somesuch.
The stair carpet gets covered in carp and cat hair all the time, and vacuuming it is a bit of a palaver. I have to get Henry out specially, unroll him, put the end on, then vacuum, then put him away again afterwards. When I was ambling around Costco that day, I thought that the handheld would be perfect for the stairs.
However, I'd had an original Dyson (DC01) many years ago, and found it was heavy, a pain to empty and didn't live up to the hype.
Still, this one was light. The bin popped open easily, and it seemed a good buy.
And so it has been. It lives in the hall, plugged inready to go. Vacuuming the stairs is easy.
.....
With Tilda living in the kitchen again, I've been having to sweep the kitchen floor every day, and as soon as I have swept it, more debris (Aubiose, a bit of chicken food, a stray feather...) appears. I've tried numerous types of broom (foam, brush, angled brush, rubber...). Recently I've found myself getting the handheld vacuum cleaner, and using that to do the edges and corners, it's much more effective than a broom.
And then I saw the new Dyson DC59 advertised on TV. That was the answer! That was, until I Googled it and saw how much it cost. I decided I'd wait and see how I felt in a couple of weeks. Or I'd wait until someone had a sale or an offer.
I kept looking. I found that retailers often excluded it from their Quidco payments, or their discount codes. My fear wasn't really about spending that much money on a vacuum cleaner, it was about spending that much money on a vacuum cleaner and then finding it wasn't worth it.
Then by chance I found that Curry's were doing a promotion where you could get your money back if you bought one of a selection of Dysons, and decided you didn't like it within x days. That seemed ideal.
I bought one.
It's been amazing. Seriously. It's hung on the wall just outside the kitchen, so it's easy to grab and use. The head pivots on a ball.It sucks right up to the front edge (not quite right to the sides of the head). The amount of stuff it picks up is unbelievable. I've used it on the carpets too, and it's great - but for me it's best use is downstairs.
I do have to switch to the crevice tool thing to get into the corners of the kitchen units, and I don't do that every day. But I do vacuum the kitchen floor every day, and it's grabbed multiple times for additional bits of cleaning. I've found myself vacuuming other downstairs more often, just because I have the thing in my hand and it's quick to do (much quicker than sweeping and dustpanning).
I have also used it (with a different head) with great success to vacuum my sheepskin rug, and to vacuum the sofas, and to de-hair the cat tree. I did try using the specially supplied head to vacuum the windowsills and TV stand, instead of dusting, but that was only moderately successful.
It's also great for lifting up and doing the ceiling. We are a spider-friendly household, so we don't routinely remove cobwebs. We wait until they are obviously out of use. Actually, I normally wait until I am confronted by a dangly out-of-use cobweb. If I have the crevice tool on, I take a moment to look for cobwebs that are ready to be removed, and I can get them easily, without having to climb on something first.
I also use it to vacuum the bottom few stairs, if I happen to be vacuuming the hall. To vacuum the rest of the stairs comfortably and properly, I'd need to take the long pole off, and it's easier just to get the original handheld and use that.
I've ordered a second filter. The filter needs to be washed once a month and left to dry for at least 24 hours. Mine will need washing at least once a month, and there is no way I could wait more than 24 hours to use the machine again.
Sorry if this sounds like an advert, it
isn't meant to. I dithered about getting one, I had fairly low
expectations.... and it's just been great.
I just wanted to tell someone!
