Ask Mrs. Clean: House Cleaning, Stain Removal and Organizing Tips

[jmismith]

What type of canister vac. is best? I want to buy one (maybe even a backpack model?). I have a large home with (what seems like) miles of stone or hardwood floors, and the dog hair is driving me nuts! I do use my shop vac regularly but the thing is big, and hard to lug around. My main question is this:

What type of vac is preferred by the pro cleaners, and what do you think would work for me?

Thanks

Jeff in Phoenix

[jmismith]

I see you already answered this question on a previous posting. Please disregard.

Thanks

Jeff

[Infomation 1324]

Hi, Jeff
I know exactly what you mean when you say you have a large home mostly all hard wood floor, and you have dogs which mean you are dealing with the dog hair drama, and it's driving you crazy, here is a tip that I will give you to make your hard work seem easy, I have my own home cleaning service which I greatly know what problem you are face with.
First, you need to invest in a commerical dust mop,which you can buy this product from a janitorial store called hesco. go to the web site, you will also need a commerical mop and mop bucket, which you can buy from your local home depot store or lowes store once you have those two you need a good broom and a stand up dust pan which you can also find at your local hardware store, Now the vacuum cleaner that I have found great success in is made by hoover the windtunnel 2, which I bought this vaccum cleaner at the local walmart store, and I tell you this is the best vaccum cleaner I have use, you never have to replace the belt, no bags, the hose's is excellent.
Once you have all the above listed product to clean your home the right way, you will first go over your floor with the dust mop, Please go over your floor several times and reaching a stopping point where you will shake the mop, go back over, you don't have to worry because the hair will attract to the dust mop, once you have done that take your vaccum cleaning and suck up the dog hair, along with vaccum your floor and taking your suction stick and picking up all hair own funiture, cracks, corners every where, once you have done that take your mop bucket put murphy's oil soap which is safe on all floors with water not too much water in your mop bucket just enough to cover your mop ring out and damp mop your floor, you may then dip your mop into the bucket and ring out again and finish damp mopping the floor, once you have finish the area that you are mopping if you have ceiling fan in the room that you are mopping turn it on, so that your floor will dry evenly leave it streak free, if you don't have a fan chances are you will see flaws, once your floor is dry, take your dust mop and go back over your floor, picking up any hair or particle you may have left behind.
I hope this was helpful to you, and I can understand dealing with a big floor like that can be alot, but you will come out alot cheaper if you could repeat this at least once every week, once you get finish with that take your mop head and your dust mop head and toss it into the washer and then dryer. please do not invest in the swifter mops or the swifter little lint and hair pick upper, alot of work, after using these two product you want want to do any house cleaning. that's a lot of work.
Good Luck!

[geraldine]

Hair is more like dust than dirt so invest in a good dust mop a microfiber cleaning head works wonders. You may have to go over it twice and keep the vacume handy so get up the piles of hair and dust.

[casabonita]

Jeff,

I tried to find the best commercial vacuum when I started a housecleaning business several years ago. I have tried many different vacuums. If you are an individual home owner, I would suggest not investing in a backpack type vacuum, even though you have a large area to clean. Backpack vacuums require that you use them for an extended period of time before taking them off. This creates problems in residential settings because if you want to clean room by room, or if you just want to spot clean, you would have to go throught the pain of taking the backpack off and then putting it back on again.

Backpack vacs are great for large areas (such as a commercial or office building(where moving an upright vac would be cumbersome) or team cleaning (when one person can be assigned to strictly vacuum). I found that a traditional upright vacuum is preferred by my cleaning employees because they can set it aside easily to do other cleaning chores, as opposed to the cumbersome task of removing the backpack. If they leave it on too long, they begin to get tired. I have my preference, the ProTeam Procare 15XP, which I use for many reasons. Bagless vacuums, such as the Hoover, are OK, but simply do not reduce allergens as much as a bagged vacuum. In fact, I bought the WindTunnel canister, which was a nice unit with a turbo head, but it simply did not stand up to the beating we gave it. Pro-Team has a canister vac as well, but it seems not to be real popular. I would go for a quality upright, the ProCare 15XP is great for pet hair.

Regards,
Cam