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First: The Dyson. I know everybody hates those goofy commercials with James Dyson talking about how his vacuum never looses suction and then something new about rotating of a pivot, but those commercials aside-- I do love my dyson. I have the original yellow monster. It is four and a half years old and it is by far the oldest vacuum I've ever had. Used to be vacuums would crap out about every year or so (part of the problem could have been the whole thing about emptying and replacing the bags, but I digress). The Dyson is great. Not only does it theoretically "never lose suction"--- this is an Obama-ism... it only doesn't lose suction if you follow the instructions and every so often (so far, once in four years) wash out the internal filter. It also has this seventeen foot long attachment hose and three pretty useful attachments. One is great for doing our stair runner, another perfect for getting cat hair off of our furniture (a nice little personal challenge set forth each day by Miss Kitty just to keep us on our toes). Also great, since it is bagless and super easy to empty I usually empty the canister each time I use it. This ease of use will invariably lead to attempting to vacuum up things that one shouldn't. Case in point-- last evening I was vacuuming all of the new kitchen cabinets in order to get rid of the sawdust, etc. from the installation process... I was too zealous in my undersink vacuuming and sucked up some sort of wood block. What happened? The vacuum started to make a strange wheezing sound (kind of like the time I accidentally vacuumed up an entire unwound spool of curling ribbon). Then what happened? I was able to push a button and release the 17-foot hose, take the attachment head off of the hose and pop! Wood block dislodged! The Dyson comes apart (and goes back together) insanely easily... which makes it almost idiot proof. The only downside? It doesn't seem to be designed very well to vacuum the inside of our cars. I think this is some sort of deal with the devil made by dustbuster and the automotive manufacturing contingent. Thus proving again that one must always own more than one vacuum.
Fabulous Household Item #2: The Dualit Toaster!
I recall going to the Williams Sonoma Outlet years ago and seeing rack upon rack of reconditioned Dualit toasters and thinking: "These things must be real pieces of crap!" But lo and behold, I have had the Dualit for a bit longer than the Dyson and it is fantastic. I think that all of the reconditioned ones were probably less likely ones that had actually broken and mostly just ones that people didn't figure out how to use. These toasters, from Britain where tea and toast is a religion, aren't particularly intuitive to say the least, but they are deceptively simple to use if you think outside the standard toasting box. First of all, there is a button on the two slot machines that allows you to select whether you want one element or both elements to work (i.e. it's energy friendly if you're making a lone slice of toast. Of course the switch is a bit imperfect in that turning it only really shuts off the outside element of the second slot so if you were to put two pieces of toast in the machine one would toast perfectly and the second would be toasted only on one side...leading you, perhaps, to think it is broken). I've already done this once but then thankfully realized I had pushed the button by mistake. Then, for things like bagels it has taken us four years plus to realize that if you put the sliced side of a bagel facing outwards it will toast appropriately with only one twist of the timer-- face the bagel inwards and you'll be going through multiple go-rounds and then end up practically singe-ing the thing. Who ever knew toast could have so much personality? But truly, the machine is a workhorse-- tirelessly producing slice upon slice of perfectly toasted bread every time we make tuna on toast and doing a great job with morning after morning of bagel toasting. I love it and it comes in fashion colors!
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