I am somewhat of a home furnishing expert. At least furnishing on a budget. Guess why? It’s not that I’ve been trained or taken classes—and I certainly don’t do it professionally. Rather I was recently a college student, and recently married. It is an exciting time be cut loose and turned to the world. True, there are the student loans, the low job prospects, diminished salaries… but the world is still free and even if you are hurting on the budget you can create a sanctified space in which to live and grow and work towards a better tomorrow. So, here are my suggestions to setting up a beautiful and increasingly valuable home even if you don’t have a lot of cash to do it. And remember, sometimes the value you get back from an investment makes the cost more acceptable, even if you don’t have a lot. And then again sometimes you should always get by on the cheaper options.
1) Craigslist. As a college student I didn’t have jack when I got finished. No table, no chairs, no desk, no bloody coffee table. The place I moved into was as bare as you were the day you were born. So, did I go to the nearest home furniture store and drop big digits on all the nicest couches and tables and black varnish? Nope. Chairs and tables are valuable and important but ultimately they just have to work and look nice. Not new, just nice. So I went on craigslist, using my wife’s upcoming birthday as an excuse, and started shopping. Very quickly I found a older woman who was moving and selling three chairs (boy, did I want that fourth chair), a table, and two end tables. The table was beautiful. Oak on the surface and nice lines and carving around the edges. But it and the other bits were coffee stained and scuffed to no degree of saving. So I bought them for a total of 50 dollars (Just fifty! And that wasn’t even the best deal out there!) And using a borrowed van and a borrowed garage took them home. Now, as long as the wood is good on furniture it can be saved. If it is cracked or twisted or warped you may want to go to another source. Rather than try to sand each and every one of these objects I cut one corner and found a very classic color of golden brown paint. After two coats the table, chairs, and end tables looked classy. Then, with a little cloth and a staple gun, I replaced the cloth seats on the chairs (keeping the cushions) to match. A 50$ coffee table from a different seller and another 15 dollars spent on sand paper, stain, and varnish later and I got a centerpiece that I am still complemented on today. Buying cheap items and fixing them up is always the way to go.
2) Central vacuums. This is something I’m going to be doing real quick with a nice electrolux central vacuum I picked out not long ago (although there was an equally nice beam central vacuum that almost had me except for the price tag). Now central vacuums are not cheap, I’ll put that out there right away. They are large expensive systems that run throughout your home. But they are wonderful for what they do. A central vacuum system, at the price of a thousand dollars give or take, can ad between $1500 to $3000 of value to your property automatically. It is such easy money and the convenience you get from it matches. While not everyone can afford the initial investment it is definitely worth it for those who can.
3) New Paint. Painting is easy and relatively cheap (compared to something like plumbing or taking out mold…) and the initial wow factor that it gives anyone who walks in the door is worth the effort. If you live in an eggshell white of course your space will look poor. Throw in even one chocolate brown or carnation red wall, however, and your apartment jumps to life. Get some friends to help if you need too.
4) Buy small furniture. If you are just getting started out like me you should consider apartment style or European furniture. Not only is their modern minimalist thing in right now, but it will be far easier to move in and out of your different spaces, which will lead to less wear and tear and a longer lifespan for your new couch. It is a little different, but the length and ease makes it the right choice.
Vacuums will always be the type of appliance that spread via word of mouth and personal recommendation. If someone has had a good experience with their vacuum and someone else mentions they are looking for one the experience will be mentioned. That’s just how it works and it can help you make sure that you end up with a great vacuum choice just by talking to your friend and relatives a little bit.
But times changed long ago as well. If you are recently engaged and you mention it on a social media page like facebook you can expect vacuum articles targeted around wedding registries new apartments. If you are buying a new home central vacuums will find their way into your line of sight. Dyson and other modern vacuum sellers use commercials and magazine articles which emphasize the modern lines and novel movement patterns the inventors have created. Even on you youtube you can find a Vacuum Vid on just about every make an model emphasizing its advantages and longevity, giving live demonstrations of what the vacuum can do when properly used (like the beam central vacuum systems displayed in the video linked in this sentence).
You should always use these sources, but with a grain of salt. Great vacuums earn the interest necessary to get good advertising—but bad vacuums are advertised as well. Ask experts in the store often if you are there to compare different vacuums and the benefits of each. Look up side by side statistics online. Do the work and reap the rewards, and don’t trust the ads.
Normal vacuums are a household appliance we are all familiar with. Remember the models from your childhood? The bit overstuffed burlap over the metal mouth, with that obnoxious vacuum bag that seemed to come halfway full when you bought it? It was always a pain to change, leaking dust and trash and ruin everywhere as you tried to pull it from your old vacuum system. And then you have the new vacuums which trump those old models in suction power, ripping dirt and dust from thick carpets, and also beating them senseless with style points. Molded plastic angles and lines, convenient cord hangers and extensions, better filtration systems and even big vacuum canisters that don’t need to be replaced when they are changed. Vacuums have come a long way—but there is still one, no, two fundamental issues that no ground vacuum can address—but central vacuum systems do. The first is exhaust. The second is power vs. sound.
The reason so many allergy sufferers simply cannot deal with normal ground vacuums is simple mechanics. When a ground based push vacuum sucks dirt and debris and dust from a carpet it pulls that air inside and runs it past a filter that drops all the particles larger than the filter space into the collection chamber. But what about those tiny particles too small to be stopped by the filter? Where do they go? Unfortunately they get shot straight into the air that the vacuum user is breathing. These ground vacuums, even with the best HEPA filters stir up tiny particle pollutants like crazy and if anyone is allergic to dander or dust mites it can make their life very hard for the period following the vacuuming.
And then the second issue—power and sound. A larger vacuum is going to be louder by default. If you have a tiny portable vacuum cleaner for a dorm room or apartment you can expect it to work at a level that won’t even bother the people next door if both doors are open. Whisper quiet is the term. But also don’t expect it to actually pick up anything or to have any sort of storage capacity. Then again if you have a towering system of gleaming molded plastic it will surely pick up the dust and hair on your carpet (otherwise you should look into having it replaced). The only problem comes when you are vacuuming and everyone else in the house is yelling at you because they can’t hear the TV, were just sleeping, or can’t hear themselves think even to read a book. And your pets will not like it either. And then you have to try to pull that vacuum out of closets or put it back, or drag it up and down stairs. The size that is needed for its power ultimately works with its bulk against you.
So what is a central vacuum and how does it solve these issues? A central vacuum is a system that works along the very same theory as any other vacuum. You have a motor assembly with a filter and a canister that pulls air in and then expels it. However central vacuum systems use specialized central vacuum parts to extend the size of the system from a ground based mobile unit, into a fixture that fits your whole house. You put a torso-sized central vacuum unit in a mechanical room, closet, or possibly your garage and hook it up via the attic and wall crawl spaces to special outlets throughout the home. This automatically solves the allergen and dust pollution problem as one of those tubes, the exhaust tube, goes to a port on the outside of the home. So whether you invest in Beam, Hoover, or nutone central vacuum the air that you take in goes outside of your home when you vacuum. It is gone and no one will ever breathe the dust or dander that was in it again.
Central vacuums also remove the power/loudness problem. The central motor is removed from the location of the vacuuming so there is no sound problem, just a slight suction sound from the tip of the vacuum. Plus the motor is huge! So that when you take your actual vacuum hose and handle assembly and plug it into the wall to activate it (much lighter than a full vacuum) you will get the suction necessary to clean furniture, wall hangings, water messes… Bigger becomes better.
Central vacuums, or built-in vacuums, are generating a lot of buzz lately. And with the value that they can add to a home or office complex, along with the advantages in cleaning that they lend, it is little wonder. A Built-in Vacuum Blog like this one is your foremost resource when checking out this up and coming technology and the huge advantages that it can lend your daily life.
Indoor air pollution from tiny floating particles has been show to be more harmful to individuals than outdoor air pollution—and with more and more people staying inside, especially as the winter months once again approach those of us in colder climates, this is a bigger consideration than ever before. Central vacuums, however, are the answer.
Even multi-stage allergen filters on most other forms of vacuums are not enough to completely purge all dust and other particles from the air vented by those vacuums. As the air is pulled into the vacuum and sprayed back out it creates a cloud of tiny particles which before were stuck in the carpet or on the floor. You don’t want that in your lungs yet we all breathe it every day with harmful penalties from it in our eventual futures.
Central vacuums, however, pull the dust from the carpet with a powerful but sequestered motor assembly, filter out the debris into a camber like all other vacuums, but then shoots it out vent external to the house. All that dust and junk is evicted from your system completely.
There are some models, makes, and whole species of appliance which you can only find while digging through some dusty back of the internet Vacuum Articles–or just running through sites like this. And one of those appliances is the backpack vacuum.
Whereas upright vacuums or even central vacuums require you to lift and pull a hose or nozzle assembly along the ground as you vacuum these vacuums are result of one spectacular brainwave—why not support the vacuum with the user’s whole body? These backpack vacuums are among the most nimble and effective to use, and are far smaller than the commercial backpack leaf blowers you see outside but don’t sacrifice sucking power. You don’t have to go through the awkward dragging motions that come from pulling a floor vacuum around and the weight, on your back, is easily less than what you would experience going to your average high school or college class with a bag full of books!
Also, like central vacuums backpack units contain a much greater dirt storage capacity than most ground vacuums. For instance the Sanitaire vacuum cleaner, with ergonomic design, quiet running, and quadruple stage allergen filtration, can hold over a gallon and a half of debris which means you can go longer before you need to empty it.
There’s no wonder that backpack vacs are becoming increasingly popular in schools, hospitals, and other areas where large spaces need regular cleaning. Take a load off from your arms and take freedom in vacuuming to the next level.
No, AHAM is not the food we eat at Easter and Christmas. While everyone in America uses appliances not everyone deals with making, testing, selling, and conceptualizing them. That responsibility rests with a comparative few—and if you aren’t in that few you probably haven’t heard of the Association of Home Appliances manufacturers (AHAM). But you are affected by them. AHAM is the best site out there for details on refrigerators, washers, dryers, vacuums, and much much more and the impact they have on those industries as well as on the population at large is stunning if you only investigate it.
Recently AHAM has played an especially prominent role in the international appliance community as AHAM head and president J M McGuire participated in the 4th biennial China and United States Consumer Product Safety Summit. The summit was held in Washington DC between October 13 and 14 of 2011.
This summit has helped to define the understanding between American consumer protection laws and standards and Chinese manufacturers who are typically unused to the stringent and expensive guidelines that must be followed when producing products. Lead scares, lost needles, power consumption guidelines, and other issues have been very newsworthy of late.
The summit serves as partnership between the US Consumer Production Safety Commission and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China (AQSIQ—due to language tweaks).
Recently the Chicago Tribune published an article regarding Appliance Replacement vs. appliance repair—and the information they gave out was incredibly helpful. The article start by referencing another piece in which they discuss whether it is safe or not to purchase pre-owned or refurbished products. It is, provided that the seller is the original manufacturer or an authorized retail or repair shop (not an anonymous eBay seller).
But should you repair or replace your product if it isn’t working? The formula, or rule of thumb, that they give is to “divide the cost of a new item by two. If the repair cost is more than the quotient, then you’re better off buying new.” The value of a new product is itself therefore a heavy and considerable asset, which makes replacement a more appealing option unless the cost of repair is very low.
If you, like our family, does have a washer, dryer or central vacuum cleaner and it breaks first check and make sure that you don’t have any sort of guarantee or warranty on your product first. If it breaks and they are under obligation to fix it it doesn’t make any sense to pay someone else to fix it instead. Plus it will cost you money.
Make sure you trust your repair guy when you go to get your quote on the repair bill. They can overestimate to get themselves work, or underestimate in the quote and mark it up later. Always ask around and get good references—the world is not a trustworthy place.
During the writing of this article it is just about Christmas day and I, the writer, and gearing up to go visit the in laws. Oh the in laws. Perhaps people who have great mothers-in-law just don’t complain about them much, making it seem like everyone has issues with them when not everyone truly does, but whatever the case my mom in law is a little off. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that my wife gets along with her any better… But besides the family quarrels I get to walk on their carpet which, as a result of the Central Vacs which must have been available to them when they built their home, is far from clean and is in fact thin and ground through with dust and dirt and little crunchy bits from a lifetime ago.
My in-law’s vacuum is VERY old. It is a central vac but unlike modern examples it runs into the floor instead of a wall outlet. The hose is very long and thin and the nozzle is unnecessarily oversized. And it doesn’t really suck. Well, it sucks a lot but you know what I mean.
The vacuum barely pulls in air. I’m curious how well it did when it was new but right now if there is a penny on the ground and you don’t feel like picking it up before you vacuum you will be able to pick it up afterwards—it will still be there. I wish I also knew where the unit was located, because the house in general is still very loud when it runs.
I would like a central vac someday if the conditions were right—but not that one.
Greetings to you one and all! As I am writing this post is its turning around Christmas and the families are here, the fires are burning, our cats are rolling around in catnip dust, and the wrappers from our early presents quite literally litter the ground around me. Let me, in this scene of festive cheer, point to a lesser known Christmas Champion—our family vacuum. Few seasons of the year provide quite the same challenge to even Specialized Vacuums as does the Christmas episode, and making sure that your vacuum is up to the challenge is hardly something to pass by.
Now, I know that when I or the lady of the house do end up vacuuming this living room there will be a lot of crumbs (cinnamon rolls with frosting), candy wrappers (stray mm’s, York wrappers, and kiss tinfoil balls mostly, bits of string from gifts, paper fragments, pine needles from the tree, and tiny plastic bits and pieces that simply have no source.
This particular mixture, especially the plastic and the pine needles (and there will be plenty of those) is going to be enough to overwhelm our family vacuum.
Nice as it is there are simply limits to what it was built for. Lacking the space and sucking power of a central vacuum we will instead turn to the family shop vac—which, while loud and dirty, will not clog. Unfortunately this also means everyone needs to make sure all their smallest gifts are accounted for. Otherwise they’ll be sucked right away.
With many people facing hard times and many of those who aren’t getting clean because of their belt-tightening measures, frugality and thrift are back in fashion. However, not everything can or should be skimped on. Surgery, dentistry, home construction, reliable transportation…. There are a lot of things that deserve the investment they warrant. But other things are great to do it yourself. Haircutting, lawn mowing, cooking instead of eating out, printing your own images… You can cut costs with a littler personal effort all over the place and the results can be great. But is installing your own central vacuum something that could be DIY? With the right know how and Vacuum Info yes. Otherwise you may want to see a professional.
Central vacuums are great even for people on a budget because they allow you to work faster and more efficiently, and they add a huge amount of value to the home or building they are installed in (which is good news to most of us). But they are terribly involved pieces of equipment.
Central vacuums are difficult to install 1) because they are heavy motors that may need more than one person to lift and put in place. 2) They use a complex system of piping that runs throughout your house and your walls 3) outlets for your attachments and hoses need to be installed in the rooms the pipe’s run too 4) you need to hook up power to these outlets and the central motor.
Because of all of this it may be best to go with a professional. But if you have the ability, why not put it up yourself?
Getting married is a great time. A stressful time. A life-changing time. A long awaited gate to normalcy time. It is so many things all at once and, if you go into it with the right mindset, it can satisfy you for your whole life. But, as you prepare yourselves for emotional intimacy and familial interconnection (to the point where you may choke with both families pulling at you during the holidays) you also need to prepare for the physical change of living with each other permanently day in and day out. Part of this needs to involve your looking at a selection of Cool Vacuums to put on your registry.
Women shed and men are generally less concerned about dust and dander build up. While generalizations these facts are generally true and need to be considered. Because there are few times in your life when so many people will be trying to spend so much money on you, and may even be shopping off a list that you may (wedding registry) you should consider using their investment to your greatest advantage.
Getting a modern, or even a modern cyberpunk vacuum will ensure that you can keep your next apartment, home, condo, or whatever dwelling you get clean—and the one after and the one after. No more vacuums dying after two years. No more changing expensive vacuum bags. If someone is going to go out and shop for you you may as well make sure they get something good.