Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

If you’re tired of scaring the cats, dogs, hamsters, and sleeping spouses every time you turn on the vacuum, you could invest in a quieter model.

The UltraSilencer Vacuum Cleaners from Electrolux are supposed to have all the power (9 amps) of a traditional canister vacuum without all the noise.

Other features include a bag change indicator, variable speed control (apparently more power isn’t always better), a telescoping wand for those hard to reach places, and on-board cleaning tools such as a crevice attachment and an upholstery cleaning brush.

The canister vacuum is simple in design and available in a variety of snazzy colors such as this cheery green.

MSRP = $299.

Electrolux

If you’ve been holding out on getting a Roomba because you were skeptical about the automatic vacuum’s ability to pick up dog hair and kitty litter, you may want to take a peek at this more powerful version:

The Roomba Pet Owner’s Robotic Vacuum “courses autonomously through rooms and cleans floors and carpets using a powerful motor and proprietary brushes specially designed to remove deeply embedded pet hair from carpets. The unit has dual, counter-rotating agitator brushes that spread carpet fibers and enable the vacuum to remove pet dander, kitty litter, and dust and dirt left behind by paws. The motor provides superior suction that captures pet dander from low- or high-pile carpets.”

Hmm, no more sweeping up spilled kitty litter? No more vacuuming up those hairy carpets on your own? This is one cleaning duty that I wouldn’t mind automating. If you feel the same (and have $350 to spend), you can pick up a Roomba from Hammacher Shclemmer:

The Pet Owner’s Robotic Vacuum

Generally hard surface floors (tile, laminate, hardwoods, etc.) are easily to keep looking better than carpets, since you can wipe up spills easily, but even those glorious hardwood floors of yours can get a little gunky with buildup over time. Instead of scrubbing away with a mop or brush, you might have fun with a more powerful tool, such as this hard surface floor steam cleaner.

The upright floor cleaner is supposed to be “the most effective steam-powered alternative to mop-and-bucket for sealed hardwood, ceramic tile, or linoleum.”

Fill it with regular tap water (no need to add chemical cleaners), warm it up for a few minutes, and set it to work removing dirt, scuff marks, food stains, etc. without damaging your floors. The base is small enough that you should be able to get into those corners and under furniture.

At any rate, the steam cleaner looks like less work than scrubbing on your hands and knees.

$99 from Hammacher Shclemmer:

Hard Surface Floor Steam Cleaner

Tired of cleaning the leaves out of the old backyard swimming pool by hand? Not ready to invest in a $500 solar-powered pool skimmer? Then here’s a gadget for you that promises to make cleaning the pool fun (though, I must confess, I’m always skeptical of products that claim cleaning will be “fun”):

Jet Net Remote Control Pool Skimmer

“This unique pool skimmer removes leaves and debris from the surface of your swimming pool. Powerful twin outboard motors get the job done quickly. And the streamlined design skims even hard-to-reach areas.”

$140 from Brookstone buys you one, but I sense this is the type of thing that’d be more fun in twos. That way you can race your spouse or the kids to see who can drive this sucker around the pool the quickest. Oh, and bumper skimmers sounds like a fun game too…

More and more things are solar powered today, which is good for the environment and even better for your energy bills. This swimming pool cleaner is another example of a tool with a solar bent.

This cleaner automatically floats about the surface of your pool, sucking up leaves, twigs, and other debris you’d usually have to fish out by hand with a skimmer on a pole. Now you can sit back in your lounger and let this little robotic cleaner do all the work.

Two solar panels on its back collect the sun’s energy throughout the day, storing it in rechargeable NiMH batteries. Worried the cleaner will get stuck in a shady corner of your pool and run out of steam? Well, worry not:

“An internal microprocessor monitors the skimmers power and prods it to seek sunny areas of the pool to recharge the batteries. When the unit enters the sunlight, the microprocessor slows the rear paddlewheel, allowing the solar panels to collect optimal energy and, once the batteries are fully charged, the skimmer resumes the cleaning process.”

Pretty smart for a pool cleaner.

Alas, solar cleaners don’t come cheaply, and this one is $500 (hey, at least you won’t spend any money on electricity to power it down the line):

Solar Powered Robotic Pool Skimmer

I haven’t had much trouble with insects in my second-floor condo, but when I visit my parents, it’s another story. Their guest bedroom and bathroom are in the basement. It’s nice and cool on hot summer days, but it’s popular with bugs and insects too. I’m not very squeamish in general, but I do hate discovering a daddy long legs in the shower with me when I’m all wet and, er, nekkid. Obviously I need to keep a handy dandy insect vacuum nearby.

What, you’ve never heard of an insect vacuum? (I hadn’t either until I stumbled across this one at SmartHome.)

Basically, you just turn it on, point it at your intruder bug or insect (spider, roach, whatever) and slurp it up. Here’s the more detailed blurb from the site:

“Standard vacuums simply suck the live critters into the vacuum bag. But the Insect and Bug Vacuum goes one step further by exterminating them with a jolt of electricity inside the sealed chamber. It’s like having your own mini electric chair for bugs! An internal trap door prevents the bugs from crawling or flying out. To empty the chamber, simply unlock the wand and empty the contents into the trash. The Rechargeable Insect and Bug Vacuum features a flexible rubber tip to trap bugs even in corners and an extendable nozzle to help reach high spots.”

Unfortunately, I don’t think my mother would be amused. She captures spiders in jars and puts them outside.

For the less humanitarian types (arachnitarian?), you can get the bug vacuum for $60:

Rechargeable Insect Vacuum

If you like to get a little wild when you vacuum (hey, who doesn’t?), then your baseboards and furniture may be at risk from dings and dents. You may just need a “Bumpster.”

Yes, folks, the latest and greatest household gadget is for… your vacuum cleaner.

This product affixes to your vacuum much as a bumper goes around a bumper car. It’s soft, though, so it can actually serve two purposes: protecting your furniture and baseboards and dusting them as it brushes against them.

The Bumpster is machine washable and dryable (is dryable a word?) and is designed to fit virtually all vacuum cleaners on the market.

Right now, it doesn’t look like the product is available online (yes, I actually found a product that isn’t available at Amazon–who knew it was possible?), but if you’re interested, you may want to email Info@TheBumpster.com and see how you can get one.

http://www.thebumpster.com/

When you’re cleaning up cat litter or other spilled items that are just in a corner of the room, you probably don’t need to get out the vacuum or the big broom. A little hand sweeper broom will do, right? Except sweeping by hand is so tedious.

Wouldn’t you rather charge up a cleaning tool to do most of the work for you? Of course you would.

The Shark Mini Hand Sweeper will suck up dog hair, bird feathers, cat litter (ever notice how much of our cleaning is required because we have pets?), and other small debris just like a little tiny vacuum cleaner. It’s supposed to have easy steering capabilities, and the head swivels so you can get into corners.

And the hand sweeper has a modern, stainless steel finish, so it’ll match all those snazzy appliances you have in the house.

$30 from Shark

When I go shopping for brooms (which is pretty darned rare), my only criteria are: cheap and fits in nook beside water heater. “Fun” isn’t something I’m expecting from my cleaning utensils (and it isn’t something I’ve found yet). Short of getting a Jetson’s style house where all you do is push a button for cleaning (or to have Rosie the robo-maid come out and take care of things), I’m not sure sweeping will ever be fun for me, but the Boom Boom Broom is trying to make things a little more interesting at least.

“Get swept off your feet by our funky BOOM BOOM BROOM. Medium height with a smaller bristle head, this broom easily reaches into tight spaces. You’ll find yourself spilling the chips on purpose for an excuse to whip this fun tool out of the closet!”

I am somewhat amused by the picture of the lady sweeping in high heels. I know that’s how I dress to clean…

$28 for the broom from Realm Dekor (high heels not included).

If you have to have a trash bin sitting out around the house (alas, not all of us have room for the dedicated slide-out trash/recycling kitchen cabinets), then you might as well have one that looks good.

It’s hard to go wrong with stainless steel, but if you have kids, fingerprints can accumulate (okay, even adults are good at getting fingerprints on things). And who wants to spend time cleaning their garbage can? (Who wants to spend time cleaning at all?)

Fortunately, this stainless steel trash can from Simple Human won’t require wipe downs, since it features a fingerprint-proof finish. Go ahead, let the kids touch your trash can all they like…

There are four different cans in the series, and prices start around $70.

Simple Human