housework | Sleep is for the Weak

On stress, cleaning, clever PR, and the Morphy Richards Vorticity

Posted by Josie on Nov 20, 2010 in Reviews, Sponsored Posts | 7 comments

I had always wondered what I would do in a time of really great crisis. I guess you can never quite predict your own coping mechanisms when faced with a situation you haven’t experienced before.

Turns out, when I’m REALLY stressed? I clean. A lot.

I know. I’m as surprised as you are quite frankly. Ironic I would turn into the world’s greatest housewife NOW isn’t it?

Now this is absolutely the last review post for a while as I made a promise a while back that I would only review things that I absolutely needed or that would be a treat for Kai, but I have been lucky enough to have been given some much-needed replacement things lately and this is one of them.

This story begins with a silly tweet in which I complained that my vacuum cleaner had punched me in the face. And it had, left a bruise and everything, but that will teach me for trying to over-enthusiastically extend a stiff attachment on a cheapy £20 vacuum (Edit: all innueundo absolutely accidental there).

Enter the rather clever and opportunistic @MRLoveYourHome, representing Morphy Richards, offering to give me a fancy new one to save me a future black eye. It’s worth noting here that Morphy Richards managed a really great bit of blogger outreach here. Tom from MR had obviously been following my blog for a while and knew enough about my lifestyle to tailor his pitch sensitivily. Plus, his tweet made me laugh which is always a winner in my book. So 10/10 Tom.

Anyway, enter into my life the Vorticity – a rather cool looking white and orange vaccuum cleaner with a unique floorhead that features 22 mini cylcones that make it extra sucky and a HEPA filtration system.

Now, I was all set for me and Kai to make a video of the awesomeness that is my new best friend and partner in stress-busting cleanathons, but I had forgotten that Kai is mortally afraid of vacuum cleaners (and food processors) so after a few screamy attempts I have had to give up and write this review instead.

And, well, I love it! It’s looks cool and is very nippy with the swivel head negotiating round all of the house’s nooks and crannies and under furniture easily. My favourite thing is that because of the way the suction works, it automatically adjusts when you move from carpet to laminate, which is handy in my house as I have both. It’s bagless, which means it keeps its suction and is very easy to empty and clean. It comes with two attachments, the brush tool is fab for the stairs, although the whole unit is quite heavy so takes a bit of arm strength to hold as you do it. It’s good and robust too which makes you feel less guilty when you’ve bounced it off the skirting boards a few times.

The weight would be my only criticism really, along with the fact that it seems to work loads better on laminate than on my rather old and notoriously difficult to vacuum carpets. But the fact that my house is spotless says an awful lot. The fact that it’s so easy to use means I actually USE it. And, well that’s a first for me.

So thanks Morphy Richards.

The Vorticity retails at about £199 and you can watch a video made by the Morphy Richards team featuring its main features here.

I would encourage to have a quick look at MR’s online community featuring recipes, cleaning tips, competitions and opportunities for community involvement.

Recipe For A Bad Mood

Posted by Josie on Jul 3, 2009 in Uncategorized | 3 comments

Add…

1 sick husband.

Ok, a genuinely sick and suffering husband with 24 hour migraine and all night vomit-a-thon, poor love, but also A MAN with all the associated brave sighs and whimpers and inability to do a thing for himself. Thus systematically removing what little help I get during an average day and depriving me of the small amount of free time/space to do important tasks like take a shower, make a sandwich, and have an uninterupted wee without a child trying to bite my knees.

360 nights of very broken sleep

Which coincidently corresponds with the number of nights since baby bear made his grand appearance. He didn’t sleep the first night, or the 359 that followed. Being woken between approximately every hour, to an hour and a half for almost a year would probably be considered to be some form of torture by the International Court of Human Rights were it not delivered by a innocent, hyper-active, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY WON’T YOU SLEEP small child. He is getting better. Just V-E-R-Y slowly. Apparently I didn’t sleep well as a child either so quite possibly this is all just the universe extracting a horrible revenge on behalf of my parents. How I am still alive some days is a complete mystery to me. I think chocolate can be held mostly responsible.

2 unbelievably early starts

5.45am this morning. 4.30am yesterday. Apparently Kai operates in a different time zone to the rest of us and thinks these are very good times to get up. Mummy disagrees.

1 horribly untidy house

In desperate need of cleaning, decluttering and/or quite possibly razing to the ground and starting over. And absolutely no time/energy/inclination to do it.