My readers have spoken

Never say I don't listen to you, dear readers. We purchased a Dyson!

Recently, I put out an all-call to my readers for input on vacuums. Who loves their vacuum? Who wants to throw it down a flight of stairs, etc.? And do you know what? The only people I heard from were people who own Dysons. They really love their vacuums, and they wanted me to know that uprights are okay; bagless is cool; and Dysons are worth the money. 

This really caught my attention. So Chris and I did some research, and we decided to take the plunge. We basically purchased exactly the opposite of what we had: we had a bagged, canister vacuum. 

Once we decided which Dyson we wanted, I went and did what I do best: find a deal!

Turned out that Sears had the Dyson the cheapest, and if you ordered it online and picked it up at the store, it was even cheap. DONE!

That was Sunday. 

Monday night I had a work event, and so I put together the Dyson and let Chris have the first go with it while I was gone. 

I wished I had asked him to take photos. He reports that he filled the dirt canister twice. Once from the upstairs and once from the downstairs. 

So today when I got home, I had a go with it. 

I vacuumed the upstairs and then the down. Then I saw this: 

What is all that?

So I did what any normal person would do. I took the dirt canister outside and investigated it. 

Here's the first thing I saw as I slowly opened it. Dirt. Real, actual live dirt. 

A lot of it. 

Then hair. Brown hair. Wonder where that came from....Grace.....

A lot of it. 

Now remember that Chris had vacuumed the entire house just yesterday evening. There was a whole lot more in the dirt canister but I didn't want to dump it all out because I didn't want to pick it all back up. Nor did I want it wafting through my backyard. So just imagine. There was more. 

Then I looked around the filter and saw a ring of dirt and hair. AHA! I thought. What a terrible design. I'm going to have to clean that out with a chopstick or something. 

Then, I took it to our big trash can, opened the dirt canister and gave it a little whack on the side of the can. The ring of hair? Yeah, it just fell out. Oh. Cool. So, no chopsticks, then? That's cool. 

I think what you call us is converts. Thanks, Dyson. We'll leave the dirt to you. 

How do you suck it up?

Vacuuming is big business in my house. 

We vacuum every day. 

This is not an exaggeration. 

If I don't vacuum the downstairs by the time Chris gets home, he does it. The upstairs gets vacuumed at least once, or twice, a week. 

So, vacuuming is a big deal. Almost six years ago, when we got married, we chose a canister vacuum. It looks like this one:

Before we purchased it--actually it was a gift. Thanks!--I did my due diligence in research. At the time, we lived in a one-story, all-wood-floors home. From my research, canisters are the best vacuums for hard-surface flooring. 

Today, the vacuum is slowly falling apart. There are tears in the electrical cord, where we've run over it with the canister. The carpet-rolling part only works when you turn the handle all the way to the right. And, Chris took off a piece of the handle cover so "it would work better." 

Now that it's falling apart, Chris declares it a piece of crud and says we should buy something totally different. Just for the record, this vacuum has vacuumed approximately 2,190 times. It's survived 3 moves, and it DOES still work. SIX years later!!

With that being said, I agree it's time for a new one. But what should we buy? 

I may be the only person left, but I love bagged vacuums. I really don't think I want to dump out all the dirt and hair. It seems like it would make another huge mess. Also, remember, we have a lot of hair in our house: a cat, a dog and me. Doesn't all the hair get tangled up in those "filters"? Currently, I like just taking the filled bag out of the vacuum and throwing it away in its nice, contained package. 

Chris thinks an upright would be easier to manage than chasing around the canister and cord. I don't entirely disagree. However, most of the uprights I've seen weight a minimum of 25 pounds. I can't imagine lugging that up and down our stairs almost every day! And, most uprights are bag-less. 

So this is where you come in, dear readers. 

What vacuum do you use? Do you like it? Are bag-less vacuums gross? 

I'm up for any and all suggestions!

Oh, and I don't want to pay $500 or something crazy.....so go!