Central Vacuum

Another thing that all households have is a vacuum cleaner. Why aren't they built in? Why don't all new houses have central vacuum cleaners? I had one in our last house and I learned to love it! When we moved in our current home I wanted to have a central vacuum. Then one day I was at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore thrift store. They had about half a dozen Cubby Vacs. New in the box! They had been $600@ but since they hadn't sold, the store had reduced them down to $75@. We snapped up 3 of them and my sister bought another one! I was soooo happy. They are vacuum cleaner cabinets that fit between the studs of your current home. Everything, including the retractable hose, fits in the cabinet. Stan installed them in one afternoon but you do need a handy husband or pay someone to install them. It means opening up the wall and dealing with electricity. We put one in one end of the house and the other in the other end of the house. The two hoses cover the entire home. We have the 3rd one in storage as a replacement if one goes down. I use them every day and have now for several years. I'm very happy with them. They use easy to find and inexpensive bags that fit Electrolux canister vacs. I can get them at Walmart!

But, back to your situation. Have you ever thought of having a central vacuum? So far, my experience has shown them to be wonderful! I do have some tips. Be sure the machine part, the canister, is placed somewhere accessible. The one in our last house, for some unfathomable reason, was installed in the crawl space under the house (and this, with a house that had almost a full basement and garage). Only Stan would crawl up under there to replace the bags. So be sure you have that part easily accessible in an outside area. The utility room off the garage, the garage, the unfinished basement, the utility closet off the carport, etc. Also, be sure you select something that has bags that are easy to find and inexpensive to replace. If you have to mail order and you only get 12 in a pack for $75, then it's a little too hard and too expensive. Be sure to check on things like that. Another thing to ask is how expensive is it to replace the attachments. A new hard floor brush and a carpet attachment are things that you replace eventually. How expensive would they be to replace. My last tip... in our last home they had gone to the expense of having a central vac plug in EVERY room in the house but I only used 2. The others were unnecessary and probably added to their expense. One at one end of the house and the other at the other end of the house. They even had them installed in the unfinished basement (which was nice but not necessary). The one place they didn't put one and they should have was in the garage. You need one there for vacuuming out the car.



Some have retractable hoses. They can retract into the wall.





And, if you don't have a retractable hose, you can store your hose by hanging it on hooks in a closet.





I like this cabinet.



While we are on the subject, do you keep all your vacuum cleaner attachments together where you can find them?