THE YEAR IS 2013 MONTH JUNE I am posting from a mount high with my Valkyrie horns and piercing Wagnerian Opera singing voice strong enough to break a crystal goblet. -- trumpets blaring singing highest praises to the best vacuum cleaner I have used in my entire life! I am 52 and housecleaned for years in my youth before I became a forensic psychologist. I cleaned households of wealthy cocaine dealers in Marin County, California in the late 70s early mid eighties and the houses of Rock stars thereby becoming acquainted with all of the best, most expensive, well established vacuums in the entire world. Naturally those days fell away as I was able to escape the depraved world of my criminal drug dealer rock and roll roadie father I was born to, to attend UC berkeley and Post Graduate School to enter forensic psychology as PhD assessing dangerousness for highly violent psychopath inmates in the California criminal Justice System. Though very busy and engaged in this high paying, dangerous work cut out for the select few, I always cleaned my various domiciles myself, availing myself of fine vacuums on a high salary. It was not until 2002 that I came across the vacuum cleaner of my dreams! This vacuum has been with me for 11 yrs. requiring nary a single repair and works as well as the day I so luckily bought it for pennies from a young gentlemen who bought it brand new but was suddenly forced to leave the country in 24 hrs. to catch a flight to Germany to work at his dream job of a lifetime, at Adidas Headquarters! The vacuum!? A Miele 246 Naturelle cannister vacuum cleaner. This vacuum is wonderful! It will suck up anything on anything! I dont even change the attachments, I just take off their standard floor rug head, and use the tube for corners and all else. This is because the power suck is so strong there's no need to jack up the PSI with attachments that narrow the square inch factor for smaller harder areas. In fact this vacuum is so strong I almost sucked up my parrot! It's not a large parrot like a Macaw, its barrel chested and stocky but only the height of a Robin. My poor parrot ran in front of the field zone of my vacuum path and got sucked right into the entrance hole of the hose! Horrible, The sqwauking and screaming that entailed!!! Because he was larger than the circumference, and a strong, athletic little tough bird, he wasnt dragged up the tube, but he was momentarily pinned at the ingress. I flipped off the power in 2 seconds, releasing him, befuddled and recouping while he rustled his feathers and scampered like a bowlegged pigeon toed football running back across the floor to safety. He was not the worse for wear and hence forth he was caged during vacuum times. Nevertheless my parrot's frightening experience speaks volumes to the vacuum power this cannister has and still does!! This Miele is lightweight on wheels and easily maneuvered. It has not required a single repair. I just change the couple filters when needed and keep it in a warm dry storage. It never blows dust or stinks like so many vacuums do after awhile. It handles wood, tile, low carpet, ciellings and corners equally beautifully and it is pleasantly quiet for a vacuum cleaner - really helpful when I feel compelled to push the limit of shared wall apt. living by vacuuming compulsively some visually irritatting debris off the floor at an off hour. I havnt received a single complaint even for a 20 minute vacuum session at 2am in the morning right below my upstairs neighbors bedroom!! This leads to my last point. Which is I love this vacuum cleaner so much after all these years, and this will sound a little perverse maybe - but I actually look forward to almost any time I get to use it! The ease of use and the immense gratification of such dramatic clean up results while feeling the power of this little muscely whirring German mini- tank of a machine is just so satisfying, at times, I can scarcely stand it :-) :-)!! This German engineering and quality reminds me of a very high end little racing power coupe BMW. As Ive had those too. No machine engineering rivals those pesky Germans! Why do you think they almost ruled the world?! Kiss your Kirby, Hoover, Oreck, Dyson... blah, blah....goodbye forever and invest in one of these cannisters from Miele and you will never have to buy another vacuum cleaner your entire life!! I personally have the Naturelle 246. I believe its pricing is highly competitive and its the best of my life as a discerning, intelligent and highly experienced house cleaner as most women are anyways.

Yesterday I was in Costco and they had the Shark Rotator Powered Lift Away 3 in 1 vacuum on sale with an instant $60. manufacturer's rebate. I paid $239 and it came with the under appliance tool, the upholstery brush, a 2 in1 crevice tool, the weird floor tool where you can attach a cloth and vacuum and dust simultaneously, the canister caddy and the attachment that I really like - the mini motorized brush. The vacuum head LED lights and another light on the handle. I had been using the top model Sears Progressive canister for years but I don't like their newest model - nor the price - so I thought I'd give the Shark a try. Costco has a wonderful return policy too. I used it immediately because my black Lab is a notorious shedder. It seemed to do a good job. One thing I noticed and didn't like is that the wheels are close together and I have one rug that shows vacuum marks - well for some reason the Shark leaves very noticeable wheel lines in the rug. The next time I vacuum I'll do a little comparison test. Vacuum half the family room with the Kenmore and half with the Shark. Empty the containers and then vacuum again switching vacuums and see how much they pick up. I've avoided Shark for the same reason I've avoided all of those "As Seen on TV" things. The informercials are just so enthusiastic and loud that they remind me of Boardwalk shills.

I use a Bissell rechargeable sweeper for quick clean ups of litter and cat hair. The thing is not a deep cleaner, but it picks up litter and surface hair really well. Good for stopping the spread of litter into the rest of the house and for quick cleanups of spilled cereal, etc. in the kitchen. I have had mine for about 4 years and it still charges good and works fine. Easy to empty the dirt holder, too. Amazon has it, as well as Target and HD. Here is a link that might be useful: Bissell Sweeper

I really like the Swiffer Vac. Vacs and dusts all at once! The only things I would change about it is a longer charge (I get about 15 minutes) and a larger dust/debris cup. When Swiffer vaccing the kitchen, foyer, dining, family room, & mudroom all at once I have to empty the cup 1/2 way through. Not a big deal, really, but once I get going I'd prefer not to stop. Definitely not enough of a nuisance to toss it out. It's one of my favorite cleaning tools in the house. Hope this helps!