Hey Gina! I don't care what the topic is I am just smiling to see you!

Yay, Gina! I love microfiber cloths too and have some on each floor of the house.

Tell me about your "light and effective vac" please and what kind of flooring you are using it on.

I've run the washer once or twice with no clothes too, fortunately not when I need something to wear right away - that would be the worst!

Lee

snicker

think you'll have more time to play on the CF now? lol

Hi Sharon - any road trips planned this summer? :-)

Hi Lee, hope you are doing well - and we miss your visits to Los Angeles.

I bought the Hoover Linx because the user reviews said it would do well both on hard surface and carpet - most stick vacs can't do carpet or can't do them well. I love this vacuum.

After deciding to let the housekeeper go (coinciding with moving to the new house), I researched lightweight vacs and found out about the Linx. It has 2 settings - one without the rotor brush and one with.

I also got an even lighter Swiffer Sweeper Vac -- ultra light and cordless. It's good for the hard surface floors for every day dust and dirt Odo (and Dave) track in - but not enough power to pick up heavy things like grains of rice on the kitchen floor.

Dave wanted to continue hiring a housekeeper, but I convinced him that I was not suffering from cleaning my own house and now he has not mentioned it for a couple weeks.

Now I even have him considering not having the weekly gardener - all they do is mow a tiny patch of grass and blow dead stuff all over - my city still allows leaf blowers. We could do this ourselves, and just hire someone for occasional big things like pulling out and hauling away some old shrubs and such.

I figure any activity that keep me off my butt is good stuff!

Hi EJ! I made some loquat jam using my neighbor's fruit - it was okay. I haven't cooked anything interesting - trying to be "good" but I can post about other stuff I guess.

Yeah! Gina's back! Loquats look better than they actually are. I clean my house. My biggest challenge is my teen daughter. I've washed the tub a few times, too. :)

Hey, good goin', Gina!

I don't think I've ever run an empty washer, but it'd take more than one hand to count how many times I've loaded the dryer, cleaned the filter, turned the knob to set the time for the drying, loaded the washer with the next load, then, when it's run, gone to switch them out, only to find I'd forgotten to turn the dryer on. You'd think I'd've learned the first 4 or 5 times I've done that. lol

Sally

Nice to see you back Gina. Any pictures of your new home?

Ann

Gina, congrats on doing your own cleaning. It can be fun with the right music! That is funny about running the washer empty. Must have been a similar feeling to going to bake something and forgetting to turn the oven on!

The Hoover Linx stick vac is part of a line of Hoovers in their Platinum collection (Linx refers to the special battery it uses). Hoovers quality has gone down since the parent company of Dirt Devil (TTI) took over a few years ago, but the Platinum machines, like the one you got are good performers, and they look great too. They seem much more well made than other Hoovers. Congrats :o) A new vacuum always makes cleaning more fun.

Here's a picture of the entire line... Gina's new stick vac is the one in the middle. They also have a light weight upright with companion canister to compete with Oreck... It's a great vac.... and a cyclonic bagless beast to compete with Dyson. Not pictured is their Linx cordless hand vac, which uses the same battery as the stick vac.

{{gwi:1448264}}

Hey Bobby, it really does look great - I should take a picture of it - such nice design and so modern. That's good to know about the hand vac - I might get it to clean the inside of drawers, the cars, etc. How does dust get in drawers anyway? It's a mystery.

I've done that too Sally. Multi-tasking makes you do batty things!

My neighbor has two huge loquat trees and other fruit trees. They've told us to go ahead and pick all the fruit we want - they're too old to do it and the fruit is rotting on the trees. So I'm eating their tangerines daily. The loquats don't do anything for me either Eileen! I'll eat them occasionally. I hate to see them go to waste.

I will post some pix soon Ann. We are about to hire a landscaper to terrace the sloped back yard and resurface the old patio. I should take "before" pix.

I was just going to say how many times I've forgotten to turn on the dryer, but it looks like you all have beaten me to it.

Today I went downstairs four times for something and didn't remember to bring it back up until the fourth trip. I did, however, grab something to eat on each and every trip.

Bobby -- how could anyone not love you? You crack me up.

Now that you're back, Gina -- stay!

Well, Gina, I don't know where you've been, but I'm feeling faint thinking about a woman who'd rather fire the housekeeper and gardener and do it herself! I'd LOVE to have either or both! Oh well. Whatever floats your boat. I am really a princess in disguise who hates housework, but realizes it has to be done..........even by me!

Hey there Gina!

Glad to hear you are enjoying your new place. Cleaning, laundry and all. Maybe I need a new vacuum to put me in the mood to clean. LOL If it makes you feel any better... I'm famous for putting the ice cream back in the fridge instead of the freezer. This has been happening way before middle age!!

Look forward to a few picks when you have time pal.

David

Hey, Gina, I'm so glad to see you again. I got a new vacumn too, mine's a Panasonic. Somehow Raoul, that darned rascal cabana boy has never shown up for work ONE SINGLE TIME!!! I always end up doing it myself, and vacumning too.

Hug Odo for me. And I've never even seen a loquat, I'm off to look 'em up.

Annie

Hi Gina, thanks for telling me about your vacuum. And thank you Bobby for the info too.

It sounds pretty impressive for a cordless. I have an Electrolux Ergo Rapido cordless that does a good job on the tile but I'd love a cordless that does well on carpet.

I miss the trips to LA and seeing all of you too.

Lee

Gina, I was thinking that the hand vac might benefit you. Sometimes you just need some suction above the floor (I'm baiting EJ)... the hand vac would be a perfect supplement to that stick vac since the stick vac doesn't have a hose. Nice also that you can swap the batteries out if one were to die in the middle of a job. Those batteries are supposed to last a good long time though.

David, try putting the fried chicken or bacon in the pantry instead of the 'fridge and discovering them a week later! And I was only 24 when I pulled those stunts!

Here's a pic of the hand vac since it wasn't in the other picture. It looks good too!

{{gwi:1448265}}

Lee, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't comment on your stick vac! (Your observations are spot on though... decent on bare floors, but not so good on carpet) It was recalled about a year ago! There was a case where the battery exploded in a ladies hand and caused severe injury. The batter is in the handle of the part where you hold it if take it out of the stick "shell" and use it as a hand vac. If you only use it as a stick vac, you should be far enough away if it were to explode. I just wouldn't want anything to happen to you, dear sweet Lee (that's my middle name, by the way :o)

Lee, I'm linking to a story about the recall that has model numbers so you can check and see if yours is one of those affected by the recall. Fair warning though, there's a picture of the lady's hand at the bottom and it's graphic.

Here is a link that might be useful: Electrolux recall...

Sometimes you just need some suction above the floor (I'm baiting EJ)... the hand vac would be a perfect

Got knee pads to go with that?

Annie: loquats are overrated.

Putting ice cream in the fridge - that's Dave. :-)

I'm sticking with stick vacs or canisters - no more heavy vacs. I had two heavy vacs - one for each floor - that my housekeeper used. I thought I was doing her a favor, not having to lug those up and down stairs.

When it came time to vacuum this place I plugged in one of those hulks, turned it on and tried vacuuming. Oh Heck NO! That just wouldn't do. I'm so glad I found the Linx stick. I was looking at canisters and my gosh how expensive can vacuum cleaners get? Pretty expensive I found.

Bobby I'm not going to click that link!

Annie it's about time you fired Raoul - since you've got that cutie Elery now!

Well, he!!, Gina, I'd fire him if he ever showed up so I COULD!

Yes, I've got Elery now and he's painting my house. Poor guy, he didn't know what he was getting into...

Annie

Bobby, thank you for looking out for me. That is a grim and scary photo. Fortunately my model is not one of the recalled ones and it seems the article indicated that the recalled machines were sold in Canada, so I'm in the clear. But I certainly checked my model number right away after your post. I rarely use it as a hand vac.

Gina, the Linx is sounding better and better to me. So far the best price I see is on Amazon so I will keep it on my wish list until I get another Amazon credit or they have a sale.

Lee

Where is your new house, Gina? Are you still near the beach?

It's been a lot easier to keep our new house clean because we have so much space to move around. We like doing our own gardening, and we've put mostly succulents and cactus in the front yard so that it will require less maintenance. Unfortunately, we inherited a ton of rose bushes with the new house, and it's a lot of work to dead head them and keep them pruned. They bloom a lot and smell nice, but neither of us are big rose fans. I have a new hibiscus that I like a lot better and I planted a new Silk Floss tree, like the one I had in Venice.

Before our party last week-end, Kevin started to vacuum the dining table top, and I made him use a microfiber dust cloth that Lee gave us - thanks, Lee! I tend to sweep rather than vacuum, but I guess I'm just not used to using a vacuum cleaner. I barely knew how to turn the one on that we had in Venice. At some point we may want to hire a housecleaner, but I haven't felt the need yet. As for mowing the grass - all we have is in the back yard, and it's pretty easy to maintain.

I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of your new place!

Lars

Good to have family "home".

I wash and forget to add soap. Wet clothes in the dryer more then once. Often forgetting I left a load in the washer and having to wash them again because they smell musty.

My housekeeper went back to work full-time... good for her but bad for me.

: )
lyra

Hi Lars! Hi Lyra - thank you sweetie!

I used to be walking distance to the beach but I gave that up. I'm about a 3 minutes drive from there now.

I ordered the Linx hand vac, Bobby - thanks for the heads up on that. I was looking at all the spider webs inside and outside of my house the other day wondering how in heck I was going to keep up with those. I think left to their own devices, spiders would have every edifice on earth covered in webs in a couple of weeks time. A hand vac will make short work of those.