Thursday, January 17, 2008

Meet my Miele

Meet my Miele, or at least... one of them. These are the best vacumes ever! Let's see - I have the much bigger version (called a White Pearl which has the motorized beater brush) - I got it over 12 years ago, but it is especially heavy and since I have berber carpets now instead of plush - I really don't need that beater brush. But still, it is a good vacume, just not my favorite.
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My favorite would be this white one... I also have the yellow one . I had the red one too, but one of the housekeepers from my business "allegedy" stole it (among other things) and fenced it for - get this - $80. Sigh. 2 years later and I am still a bit peeved. My only consolation is that when whoever bought it tries to buy vacume bags - they will probably keel over at the price of a box! Ah, but they are good bags, have allergin filters, etc., etc. And good luck to them even trying to find Miele vacume bags in our area in the first place.
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I USED to have a 2nd white one too, but when someone adopted my little dog I was so happy that she was going to a good home that I gave the person a vacume to go with her. I'll save that story for another blog post though.
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Anyway, let me tell you the GOOD things about this particular vacume. First off - it is strong. Very, very, very stong. Sand - not a problem. Dog hair - not a problem. Tons of suction. Tons! Something stuck way down in a crevice in your car? This vacume will get it. So - suction. That alone should be reason enough to buy it, but there is more...
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You can get a little non-motorized beater head for this vacume (which I have, but it has a bad habit of sucking up all my long hair and then twirling it around and around into a hopeless mess that has to be cut off with scissors - so I don't use it!). OK skip that idea. But - you can buy a super wide head - that is the head I have one it. The head that it came with is just about useless in my eyes, but this super wide head - well, it is super nice! You can set it for smooth floors or carpet. And - lots more attachments in the canister that I use for blinds, cushions, tops of heaters, ceiling beams, louvered closet doors... if you can vacume it - I pretty much do. Miele also makes a nice looking super lightweight vacume, but I haven't bought one because there is no place to actually store your attachments on the vacume and I use the attachments a fair bit... , beside the fact that I already have enough vacumes, but it might be a good choice for someone who wants a very lightweight vacume that still has enough power to actually vacume!
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Swivels - the head quickly and easily swivels so you can vacume every single square inch under your bed. I love vacuming under the bed. Honest. It just drives me bonkers if I can see any film of dust under the bed (we have wood floors in the bedroom). This is a bit funny because when DH first met me I thought under the bed was the ultimate storage area and now I don't even allow a speck of dust under there!
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Very quick and easy to just unsnap the entire hose unit to vacume out your drawers, corners behind the doors, slider tracks, etc. I do this very often as I am vacuming. When was the last time you vacumed out your drawers? Well, if you had a Miele you probably would because it is just that easy. Zip and you are done.
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Very quick and easy to shorten the wand so you can vacume each stair as you go up.
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Power level - you can set it down to very low to quickly vacume your scatter rugs when you just want to hit them quickly and not bother picking them up to shake/beat them outside. I use the low setting to vacume drapes sometimes too.
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Extra long power cord.
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And - should something go wrong with your beloved Miele - the store is usually pretty good at fixing it.
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I vacume about 3-4 times a week, sometimes more. For a household of 2 adults/1 child. Ask my husband. As soon as I see one little speck of something on the floor - out comes the vacume. Main walk ways are always vacumed while I am at it. I always go into each room, shut the door and vacume the door corner. Those 2 things I always do - the rest gets rotates... I might do the drawers, the heater tops, the windows, couch cushions, along the beams... If I know that I am going to mop the smooth floors (kitchen, bathroom, wood floor in bedroom, hall) since I just vacumed afterall - best time to MOP, then I won't do such a deep clean vacume in the other rooms. The kitchen/bathroom gets mopped usually 2X a week, but I only mop the bedroom 1X a week (it is a wood floor so I only use Murphy's in there). If I am mopping with Murphy's about every other time I will even go a step further and usually wipe down the wood furniture with Murphy's before mopping. I mean, Endust and Pledge is good and all, but nothing beats a good wiping down with a damp Murphy's rag... end tables, bedside tables, table tops, bed headboard, footboard, rails and in-between each and every bed slate, desk top, the little ledges caused by the carved design on my doors (I think they are called double cross doors), picture frames, windowsills, tops of heaters, stair banaster...., etc.... So, if I figure on mopping, I let the deeper vacuming slide for another day or two. After mopping wood floors I quickly remop with a dry mop - moisture on a wood floor isn't good for it - and I don't like spots anyway.
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Anyway, 2 days ago I not only did a BIG vacume, but went ahead and did the entire Murphy's routine. So, I was very annoyed when - in the middle of a cold Canadian winter - a FLY comes out of nowhere and gets snagged in a cobweb that somehow I missed. Grrrr. Tomorrow I am definately getting out the vacume to get all the wall corners- all the way UP where the ceiling beams are.
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The strange thing is that while I've always been great CLEANING, I've never been good at clutter. I used to move all the clutter around, clean and then put it all back. But I've been working on the clutter aspect and have pretty much all my flat surfaces cleared off and polished now (INCLUDING the top of the fridge!). Ever since I started feeling better I've been on a campaign to get RID of the clutter, get rid of extra things, organize what is left, everything in its place/a place for everything. It is going to be soooo much easier and faster to clean with 1/2 the amount of stuff in the house! My house isn't completely where I want it to be yet, but these things take time... and I am not giving up! In the process, I am teaching my son good habits!
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When I had my son my doctor told me - no driving or vacuming for 2 weeks. I was ok without being able to drive, but I was going absolutely batty not being able to vacume. And then this summer - I was sick and just not up to vacuming. Most of the time I would dust/dry mop the bedroom and call it good and Little Boy was happy to "spot" mop the kitchen floor if I gave him a wet rag and asked him to clean the spots on the floor. I was saving my little bit of spare energy for enjoying my son, not cleaning. Other than these 2 periods, I pretty much vacume - alot. So, is a Miele worth the price? Well, I've had this one for probably 8 years... and I have less trouble with my vacumes than my sewing machines. While I am happy to sew on just about any sewing machine, I really don't like to use any other vacume than a Miele!
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Anyone still reading??? This is my 300th post. I really wanted to post something monumental, but all I could think about was that fly which got me to thinking about vacuming. It is that fly's fault. Blame it on the fly.


10 comments:

Quilts And Pieces said...

I"ve heard of Miele vacuums. Man do I need one of those!

Laurie Ann said...

I am excellent at organizing and don't have any clutter. But not so good at the cleaning part. Hmmm... there must be a happy medium out there! :) Looks like a great vaccuum. I am almost ready for a new one!

Laurie said...

you can come vacuum my house if you get bored and then we could quilt together! LOL...great 300th post!
hugs
laurie

Paula, the quilter said...

Like Laurie Ann, I'm good at organizing but not cleaning. I try to use my vacuum to dust because any other way puts the dust into the air and then my allergies just go haywire. Love your 300th post on vacumms *s*.

Susan said...

Okay, it's the danged fly's fault! =) When we have a house again, I will probably go looking for one of these. We never seem to find anything that has a great suction. Electrolux used to, but our new one didn't. Paul does have the portable Oreck that he likes, but this sounds better for a whole house.

I don't mind clutter. I actually like it. Dirt, no, but clutter - it's a sign I'm being creative. =)

Penny said...

We've just got our second miele. We'd had the first one for over 9 years when a vital bit went missing, and DH decided it was probably time for a replacement. So we tried a different bagless make. It just wasn't a patch on the miele, so we've just got another miele - this time round we didn't look at the other makes.

Shelina said...

Congratulations on your 300th post! They should pay you for that commercial! I haven't heard of Miele's either, and you are welcome to come over here and vacuum at any time. I don't have a lot of rugs - mostly hardwood floors, so it seems a big chore to drag out the vacuum!

Tanya said...

300 posts marked by talking about vacuums. That's something I would do (I'm glad I'm not the only one like me...).

Congratulations on 300.

-Tanya
(www.purplegiraffes.wordpress.com)

QuiltingFitzy said...

I'm not good at cleaning nor vacuuming, lol. Dh does it all..cooking and laundry too, thank goodness.

You would never STOP vacuuming at our place here in the windy desert. The amount of sandy dust is just amazing. I still wouldn't change where I live for anything!

Vacuums are funny things, you either LOVE or HATE the one you have.

Happy 300th post!

Cher said...

I am a cleaning person too- though with a nasty cold, no energy for that! I appreciate this recommendation - my Bernina store sells these vacuums, so I will have to think about them. I use our canister Electrolex all the time.