In our new house, most of the floors are wood or tile, just the basement and family room have carpeting. In our old house the swifter vac was perfect for the little area we had hard surfaces, but it can't handle the cat fur of two cats and all this hard surface. It's constantly clogged and the sucking power too weak.

I absolutely do not want a steamer stick vac as those are bad for wood floors. I just want a simple stick vac that can get in corners, swivel under and around things and can actually do the job. We have a big upright, but those are awful to maneuver around surfaces.

Or, should I look into a canister vac with a nice attachment for wood surfaces? Though that seems like overkill for the every few days thing I need to do.

Thanks!

well we recently bought a dirt devil 2 in 1. it is a cordless stick vac, and a hand vac, and its actually a hand vac, the last one we tried the handvac part had a huge mouthpiece i guess you would call it...idk...but you couldn't get in tight places..this one even has a little crevice tool built in so you an get in even tighter places..i really like it...we have 3 dogs...so hair is an issue at our house, and our parrot throws his food, and it picks all the seeds up too with no problem.... it seems to go dead quicker on carpet then tile etc...so we mostly use it for the kitchen, the bird area, furniture, and stairs. i just love it for the convenience of it. im sure if you werent looking for convenience you could find something better... but we like it and it was under 50 bucks at walmart

I have a Dirt Devil Power Stick and love it. I got it after I broke my shoulder and literally could not sweep the kitchen floor with a broom. Try sweeping with one hand, can't be done. I got the Dirt Devil power stick and use it all over the house. Kitchen, bathroom . living room it handles it all and is very easy to handle.

Dysons are really good, if a tad overpriced. We immediately noticed the massive difference though (We have 1 pretty long haired cat and a dog, sometimes 2 here)

We have the Animal version I believe, with the swivel ball thing... Makes it easy to maneuver. It also has a pipe (Sorry not really sure about all this hoover terminology ) for doing up the stairs and attachments for doing different types of floor surface.

The suction power of it is probably the most impressive bit, but I've also never had it blocked (3 years of use)

I sound like a Dyson spokesperson!

I bought the Bissell 3-in-1 vacuum for about 15 bucks (on sale-now 19.88) from Walmart and it works perfectly for 2 people plus 2 hairy cats household. It can be handheld or stick vacuum if you prefer and it is easy to clean. GL and hope you find a good one that works for you!

PS- I've had this vac for 5 months and use it almost daily with no problems.

I went looking at different models today. I really need something with the swivel head and low profile like the swiffer vac, and the power of a REAL vacuum.

Unfortunately, not much on the market for that. A little stick like bissell, or Hoover, or whatever won't be good enough for the entire house (2500 square feet of tile and wood). Maybe for just the kitchen and dining area, but I have a LOT more than that.

I'm leaning towards the Dyson DC23 Animal or the Dyson DC26 City. The city is TINY and light, but can't do stairs. I'm a bit worried about bulk with the dyson dc23 Animal, but I'll go to sears again tomorrow to check it out better.

We bought an Oreck about a month ago, We Love It. I also got the canister vac that comes with it, awesome for cob webs, cleaning out the car, and in cracks and crevices that the vacuum can't get to. Great for pet hair, we have dogs and our Oreck works wonderful..

One more thing, I love how easy it is to push around, and it goes under my bed all the way, it is great. The bags last forever also, they are really big, hold a lot.

I went with Thea dyson dc26 city. I think i'm in love with the thing! Took me five minutes to do the kitchen, dining. Room and entryway, including under everything. that usually takes me 30-40 minutes!!!!

I decided to go with the smallest because we have an upright, we needed something easy to grab and use. This is. So happy we got this. And my husband didn't die at the cost either.