Perversely, as a number of my friends will tell you, I like to clean. Nothing gives me a greater sense of accomplishment than to take someone (else’s) devastated living space and clear, sort and clean it. It’s a sickness, but it’s mostly harmless.

Got a collection of dead hamsters in the freezer that you haven’t been able to deal with? Can’t open the door to your bachelor pad because of the junk you’ve brought home from tech trade shows? Suddenly realized that the collection of magazines you’ve been hoarding is keeping you from getting through your living room?

(All true stories, btw, and you know who you are.)

Who you gonna call?

Closer to home, our own mess ebbs and flows with the tides of personal tolerance. One of us likes slivered almonds, which somehow seem to be interested in colonizing the kitchen floor. Papers somehow make it to the dining table and set up shop there. Coats (and hats) on the back of the door spontaneously multiply.

Periodic pogroms purge precipitously.

Now, while I love to clean, I hate getting down to do it, and though we bought ourselves the world’s most advanced vacuum cleaner. a Dyson (though why it doesn’t have a retractable cord mystifies me), I hate dragging the cord around…especially for the little jobs. See “almond slivers.”

[amazon_link id=”B002IAY3N0″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]EJ wanted a dustbuster, and I wanted a cordless “stick,” and since I offered to goto the store to pick it out…I got one that does both.

The ErgoRapido (Fast and Handy?) splits off into a dustbuster, or mates up to be a stick vacuum complete with rug beating roller brush. It comes with a recharging base that either screws into the wall (my preference) or sits on the floor (collecting dust around it).  It also has places for the attachments to live so they don’t get lost immediately.

They’ll still get lost, but now they have to work at it.

It works pretty well, though not as well as the Dyson. I’m sure if I went over the same areas with both, the bigger vac would pick up a third more dirt…but it wouldn’t be surface dirt, and if you keep it from getting ground into your carpet in the first place, isn’t that a win?

After zipping through our condo and loft I dumped out the bagless container, and was gratified to find about two cups of evil vacuum stuff in the snap-off cup. There’s a round port on the top of the dirt container  for you to suck out the dirt with your big vac, which is a mildly hilarious idea, and the dust filter in the canister can be cleaned with warm, soapy water. At 5-1/2 pounds, it’s a lot more fun (and happens to be more maneuverable) to take up the stairs to my office/loft than the Dyson.

I mounted ours in an out-of-the-way corner of the kitchen. The aggressive glow from the two blue LEDs on the charger light up the whole room, and the vacuum ready to spring into action at the drop of a…well, a hat is probably too big for it. Spilled salt’s right up its alley though.

And as an added bonus, it’s orange.