Cleaning my apartment has always been my favorite form of therapy. I genuinely enter a blissful flow state doing laundry, wiping down counters or scrubbing dishes. Vacuuming, however, is where I draw the line.
As someone who sheds hair relentlessly — in a studio apartment, no less — vacuuming often feels futile. Between wrestling with my vacuum and walking around in hopeless circles in search of every speck of dust, my subpar stick vacuum somehow makes things worse. Add in prying hair from a roller and the inevitable lower back pain that creeps in after a cleaning session and vacuuming becomes a dreaded ritual I put off again and again.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. With the one of the best vacuums, vacuuming can actually feel satisfying. So in my search to find the best upright vacuum, I enlisted my good friend, neighbor and CNN Underscored colleague, business coordinator Devin Zacchino, to offer up the various flooring in his apartment for some hands-on testing. We put models from trusted brands like Dyson and Shark up against budget finds from Kenmore and Eureka. Together, we crushed Cheerios into his carpets and tracked leaves across his floors in the pursuit of finding a winning vacuum. Here are the two that passed our tests.
