Fur Fur Everywhere! Need Hand Held Vacuum Suggestions!

So, we added our second kitty a couple of months ago.  The fur is piling up in corners of the house and stairs like mad now, especially since the new one is long haired.  She gets brushed daily, and our short hair several times a week.  But, it makes no difference.  Mounds of free floating puff balls are breeding overnight lol.

We have a very good canister vacuum but honestly it's just too much to drag out daily.  Especially since I leave at 7 am and don't get home until after 7pm, and then have to start dinner and all else before collapsing in bed by 10ish to start it all over again.  Plus, my home is rather small.  I need something small and lightweight which I can just whisk away those tumbleweeds from the room corners and worry about the big cleaning on the weekends.

I'm not sure if getting a stick vac or hand held is a better choice.  I do not have a fabric couch or dining chairs.  They are leather so that isn't a problem.  I do have fabric kitchen chairs but the cats don't tend to go on those.  Small velvetish loveseat in a home office but we keep that covered anyway.  Really I need it mostly for the stairs and room corners of the hardwood and tile floors.

Any suggestions?  I'd rather keep it not overly expensive so I'm not looking for a Dyson but something more reasonable.  Maybe not more than $100 or so.  

Laurie

I have a Dyson Animal and love it. However I realize it is an expensive vacuum.  The only reason I have one is because I had enough airmiles ot get it 100% free.

An excellent vacuum that is a huge rival to Dyson is the Shark Lift Away.  It is way less expensive, a sealed system like Dyson, and cyclonic action. And it is about 50% lesser in price than a Dyson.
 

Thanks Natalie!

I already spent $700 on a vacuum last year, not a Dyson, but another brand which is very good (forget the name off hand and I don't feel like getting off the couch at the moment haha).

The Shark looks promising.  There's a refurbished one on Amazon.  I *might* take a chance on it.  I also heard great things about the Hoover Platinum Linx Cordless Pet handheld, but I'm concerned it might be more for furniture use.  Would love to hear if anyone here has it and if they are able to use it for spot lifting on hard surfaces.

sivyaleah said:

Thanks Natalie!

I already spent $700 on a vacuum last year, not a Dyson, but another brand which is very good (forget the name off hand and I don't feel like getting off the couch at the moment haha).

The Shark looks promising.  There's a refurbished one on Amazon.  I *might* take a chance on it.  I also heard great things about the Hoover Platinum Linx Cordless Pet handheld, but I'm concerned it might be more for furniture use.  Would love to hear if anyone here has it and if they are able to use it for spot lifting on hard surfaces.

Click to expand...

Hoover isn't a sealed system.  You want a vacuum that is a sealed system so that you aren't spewing dust into the air. HEPA filters really don't do much if the system isn't sealed.

See this link for more and some reviews on the Hoover

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/247589/any-vacuum-suggestions

Do you really need a vac for that? I use a dry swiffer when I have to do touch ups like that. It does a great job with cat hair. .


I have a shark handheld vac for my furniture.

I do use Swifter (I should have stock in it!), which does work great but, it doesn't quite get into corners in certain places, like around my radiators and around the stair banisters.  Plus I have high baseboards around the house too, with kind of fancy detail work so the dust and fur clings to it like crazy (100 year old Craftsman home).  Then there are the rugs, which tend to accumulate lumps of the fur which blow around lol. Oh, and places where the floor and wall have settled between each other leaving crevices that only a vacuum can get at.

My BF took out the vacuum today (it's a Riccar) and it does a great job but such a pain to drag around more than once a week.  I just keep thinking if we Swifter and use a hand vac on those difficult areas we could keep on top of it way better than we have been.  When we went to change the bag today, there was an entire new cat living in there just from one month's use