I have a Rainbow that is kept in a closet under the stairs. The empty cannister is kept in the mudroom, under a shelf. I keep the hose, extensions, and attachments corralled in a 5gallon bucket, so that I can carry it with me into other rooms, if necessary.

Edit: By 'cannister,' I meant reservoir. It still has some water and grit, after it's emptied outside, so I keep the reservoir in a location where it can air dry.

This post was edited by mama_goose on Mon, May 6, 13 at 11:31

Broom closet, kitchen.

We used to have two coat closets in the same hall, but we lost one when we added on. The remaining closet is now too full, so the vacuum has moved downstairs to the basement storage room.

Mine is the the laundry room, in the space where a utility sink would normally be. I can tuck the vacuum, the steam cleaner and the clothes steamer into that space.

I always found it a little perplexing that there's no other logical space in my house to store a vacuum - or even brooms for that matter. It's a little reassuring to see that a lot of houses are built that way. When I was house hunting many years ago, I saw a very cool center hall colonial revival that had a generous cleaning closet off the main hall - complete with a utility sink. If I ever build a house, I want that!

This post was edited by TheRedHouse on Sun, May 5, 13 at 15:22

Musicteacher, you gave me a chuckle!

We have central vac and keep the parts in a broom closet in our laundry room. I also keep a small vac in the linen closet by the bedrooms and we have another small one we keep in the lower level store room.

We store our mid-size Kenmore canister vacuum in the big closet under the stairs. The house is 70's split entry, and there's a closet under the flight of the stairs up. It opens into the first floor landing.

The closet holds quite a lot of stuff - folding dining chairs, extension leaves for the dining table, a tall shelf rack with home preserves (pickles and jams), paper towels and napkin packs from Costco and various sundry, and also a stack of plastic drawer chests.

Our ShopVac resides in the attached garage.

I keep my uprights Lindhaus for hardwood floors and Dyson for carpets in the closet of my 'dining room/office' (repurposed bedroom), another upright Dyson upstairs in a closet because I don't want to lug a vac around. A canister Dyson, banished to the basement, and a big shop vac are located in the open in strategic areas, plugged in and ready for action...for managing spiders, if needed. I'd say the main floor Dyson lives in the closet less than half the time, and otherwise is hanging out where ever last used. Hmmm...going to try being more Mindful of putting it away more often.

Our coat closet is under the stairs, so we broke open the back wall to have the total under-stair space for storage. We have the vacuum, the rug/furniture steamer, and the Spin-Scrub machine ( for tile floors) all in back of the coats. I use all 3 regularly ( 2 dogs). Agree, there should be a designated closet for cleaning electrics, even a central vac needs a place to put the hose and attachments!

I have a cubby in the cabinets just for the vacuum. I asked that it be at floor level so I could just push the vac in, but dh insisted it wouldn't work right, so I have to lift it into the cubby. I love having a place for it but wish I had insisted on an opening where I could just push it in.

Before this, I was like you and just left it in the corner of a room, or if company was coming, I'd shove it into the coat closet.

Interesting responses, and I thought my house was the only one without a dedicated space for vacuum cleaner, broom, swiffer, etc., preferably one on each floor.

When we remodeled the bathrooms we put a shallow closet (18" maybe) in the hallway behind the toilet. The vacuum barely fits in there but the door doesn't close. I've been meaning to cut a half circle in the shelves for the handle so we can close the door but haven't gotten around to it.

That is the only closet in our house that isn't in a bedroom and it's stuffed to the gills. :)

I keep it in the hall coat closet year 'round except for the 2 days out of the year that I clear the closet out for guests, then it gets shoved in the walk in master closet.
However in reality, 363 days out of the year, it is sitting in the living room or kitchen as I vacuum something constantly.
Sometimes it sits in a bedroom, that rotation thing....

It's like a someone who drinks coffee all day long, they don't want to have to haul the coffee maker from the cupboard each time they make a pot...

There is a distinction between "guests" and friends although there is some crossover. Friends could care less about the state of my house and guests think I'm Martha Stewart. We have a fair share of both but guests are usually scheduled- and I have time to pull it together.

Family is a mixture of both so depending on what category they fall into depends on how clean/neat the house is and where the vacuum cleaner is stored and how soon it was last used.
It's complicated.

I keep it in my store room.

The downstairs pet hair remover vacuum cleaner (upright) is kept in the front hall coat closet. It interferes with long coats but just fits on the jacket side.

The electric broom thing that is only good on hardwood floors is hanging on a hook on the inside of the door to a very small utility closet upstairs. The rest of the closet has shelving but there is just enough space to hang it up and still close the door.

It's a 1930's house with very little closet space.

Argggh. Pet peeve that this otherwise great house had no dedicated 'broom closet" or "utility closet". The vacuum wandered homeless as did everything from windex to oops.

Ultimately I gave up the centrally located linen closet to redeploy it as a cleaning supply closet. I whittled the linens severely - put sheets onto bedroom closet shelves, towels into bath cabinets, table linens into pantry, and miscellaneous into mudroom cabinet. Then corralled all the cleaning supplies onto closet's upper shelves. Made space for batteries and for light bulbs. Hung brooms, mops etc to one side. Hung rag bags to other. Rolled in vacuum and slipped floor sweeper to its side.

Whew. SO MUCH BETTER.

My miele upright has to live beside the open Swedish shelves in the back door area of the kitchen. I measured and ordered the shelves to just leave a perfect nook for the vacuum. While I'd love to have a broom closet, the former owners turned a generous closet under the stairs into a powder room by dropping and building a new subfloor. The first floor powder room trumps a broom closet in my opinion. And my vacuum is visually appealing, so I don't mind too much. It is what it is.

Celtic Moon's sounds perfect, but gotta say standing it behind the drapes would work too. Especially if it stayed plugged in.

We also have a central system and keep the vacuum parts in a drawer under a window seat.

We have a broom closet, but it's too shallow to hold a push vacuum. We also built a shower in the powder room just to have it on the main floor (in case someone broke a leg or something) but designed it to look like/function as a closet behind louvered doors. (The tiled shower pan edge is half depth to make room for the doors to set into the door frame in front of it.) To this day the shower hasn't been used, but the closet quietly holds things like wet coats, step stool and the extra vacuum I haven't gotten rid of.

This thread is cracking me up! I don't want to look at a vacuum cleaner sitting out. Reminds me of the time I stopped in at a friend's - the vacuum cleaner was sitting near the front door - with items hanging off it!

We used to use a rainbow exclusively, but since we now have all hard floors, I got tired of it. Still it has some wonderful attachments and there are a few times a year I use it - so it is kept in the garage. I have an upright that stays in the laundry room and a smaller, shark electric sweeper/electric broom - that is wonderful. It's used for in-between cleanings and is kept in a large linen closet along with a small broom that I use only for baseboard, etc.

tina

Inside the walls! I have Hide A Hose for my central vac so it just sucks itself back into the wall after use. It is the best! It's the most common sense solution to house cleaning needs. I have had it 7 years now, it has never given a moment's trouble. It exhausts the fine dust to outdoors so the house stays almost dust free. Nothing but a few small attachments to store. Can you tell I love it?

i have a beam central vac and i keep the LONG hose on a hook in my foyer coat closet....have a second hose in the garage downstairs for the lower level and garage (yes i actually vacuum my garage!!)

:)

Uhoh. Need to amend my response. Apparently, we are again keeping ours in the dining room, but now the cord is going down the hall into another room where it is still plugged in. Sometimes, I really wish I lived alone.

The advantage of having a 115 year old home is that I have a large pantry off the kitchen where I keep the downstairs one, and the upstairs one goes on the landing in the back stairway.

Walk-in pantry off the kitchen, along with a re-chargeable hand-held dust-buster and an electric sweeper for quick clean-ups. I insisted on having a couple of outlets in there for just such things, plus we have the alarm system power system in there too. Interesting thread. I can't understand why home designers don't work in a plan for this stuff.

Ours is kept in the closet of our little office, which is on the main level and was meant to be a bedroom. Another vacuum stays in the basement for cleaning that area and the cars.

When we looked at houses, there were some that really had NO place for a vacuum.

We keep ours in DH's closet. Well, that is where it supposed to be. Really, it hangs out in the baby's room, which is close to the closet!

Yes, it's strange that there's no properly dedicated area for vacuum cleaners.
I guess it's just not selling a lifestyle when you have chef kitchens, luxurious spa-like bathrooms, dressing areas and walk-in closets with super storage for clothes and shoes, and then you're adverting a "closet for all your cleaning equipment and utensils."

Middle of the house of course! And yes it's plugged in! Previously it was kept by the back door to block the doggie door when needed since the dog door cover was broken. But the dog overcame his fear of unplugged vacuum cleaners so it's no good for that anymore.

We do have a closet for it but it seems to enjoy being with the family.

Our house was built in the '50s and has a nice storage closet for things like this.

Posted by bronwynsmom (My Page) on
Sun, May 5, 13 at 12:38

What is wrong with house designers, anyway?

Where are the utility pantry, the pet feeding area, the broom closet, the sufficient linen closet, the project room, the butler's pantry, the laundry room, the drying yard, the flower and plant room, the package room, the mud room, and the shop???

^^ THIS! Modern home design sucks. I don't need those extra bedroom or great room or dining room. I need utility areas! The new houses I looked at (including the one I bought) don't even have utility sinks. and, oh -- I have a coat closet . . . but no linen closet. :(

This post was edited by Violet.West on Tue, May 7, 13 at 20:35

In the cleaning person's trunk.

Right now, in the guest bedroom closet.

Now that we are down to one cat, I think I can get rid of the litterbox in the small hall closet/tool storage area. This cat never uses that box. So, that would actually be a great place to put the Kenmore upright.

My parents' house had a utility room, so Mom kept it in one of the built-ins there. Wish I could transport that room to here!

I have 2 hoses/wands for my central vac. One lives in the garage, just inside the door from the back hallway, hanging on a garden hose hanger. The second hose and accessories live in my walk-in closet upstairs.

Helene

My Miele lives in the basement. My Shark Navigator lives on the main floor ( family room closet) and an Oreck lives upstairs. There is room In the closets but it likes the hallway better. It's spoiled, I guess.

Haha, my Dyson either lives in the DR between the wall and the china cabinet, or when it needs some alone time, it's hanging out in one of the unoccupied bedrooms upstairs. The lucky swiffer hides behind the master bathroom door where DH drapes sweaty gym clothes over it to dry.

Fori, LOL about this: "We do have a closet for it but it seems to enjoy being with the family. "

Nosoccer, ha, ha! You are right. The "cleaning" aspect sort of brings all that down a notch, yes?

I have found that the age of the home doesn't seem to matter? I have looked at all sorts, and it just seems to be hit or miss. My house is 80 yrs and old and I guess it would fit in the hall closet, but I do need room for the coats/shoes of 7 people. (And we don't even have that many pairs!) My sister has a new house, and she has a HUGE closet off of her kitchen for utility items. I love it! I have a pantry, too, but it's only deep enough for a broom-- but I'll take it!

I have two upright vacuums. The one downstairs lives in a remote corner of the living room and the one upstairs lives in a bedroom. That one is convertible to a canister and is great for cleaning under the beds. I don't have any only-canisters (except for a very old one, which has been relegated to the basement), as I feel they are a problem to store, with hoses, wands, etc. all over the place. I live in an old house (93 years old) which is very shy on closets (we did add one in the kitchen) and I don't feel the vacuums are so unsightly that they can't be left out for all to see.

We have a small closet next to the fireplace that was built (I think) to store firewood. It's a gas fireplace, so it's now our broom closet. Works perfectly. If we didn't have that, I'd put the vacuum in the coat closet.

My last house had an incredible room we called the "staging area." It was 15'x17' and located just off the kitchen. Tile floor with a drain! Washer and dryer! Floor to ceiling stacked cupboards with enough storage for anything---and everything! I had california closets build a dedicated clean laundry area along one wall, so each child could find his or her clothes in theor own set of baskets and shelves. They were supposed to put their clothes away upstairs but the ones living at home just dressed each morning in the staging area. It had two huge floor to ceiling windows overlooking a lawn and apple trees. The room was so big the housekeeper kept the ironing board up all the time in its own area. I do miss that house something fierce!

I keep mine in the coat closet. I was thinking it would be nice to also have a cordless one that hangs on a wall while charging but I literally have no wall I could hang it on unless I hang it in the open.

Not sure why this old thread was revived, but it is interesting!

My vacuum is in the front coat closet. It is a small, cheap vacuum since we have hardwood or tile on most of the first level. Two small bedrooms have carpet that is vacuumed. The big vacuum (a Kirby) is in the basement, which is carpeted. It is in the storage area in the basement.

I have a front and back coat closet. The front has the vacuum, while the back has the brooms, Swiffers, mops, etc... I should move the vacuum there, but I don't actually use the vacuum, so it doesn't happen. I have never had a dedicated utility closet, but when buying a house, I always look for closets at the front and back doors for this reason, because one of them will contain cleaning stuff. Maintaining stuff has always been a priority for me when shopping for homes.

Main vac: In the kitchen, no closet space to give it in this tiny old house.

Tiny hand vac: in the living room on the bottom floor of a floor to ceiling cat condo

Shop vac: permanently sitting by the parakeet cages in the study.

Right now they live in the back bedroom (when I've put them away). When I move I'm supposed to have central vac -- but I figure the hand held Dirt Devil (which is about 25 years old now & I had to special order a ton of bags for it off of e-Bay since it's discontinued) can live in the walk in pantry. Along with central vac attachments.

Also luggage -- where do you keep yours? Mine lives on the floor of my coat closet, but it will move to the pantry when my new home is completed. Tired of trying to find boots behind the luggage.

Upright vacuum in the pantry, brooms and mops in the laundry "closet", which is just big enough for stacked w/d, shelves for supplies and hooks on the walls. There's also a hand vac plugged in in the laundry closet, and one plugged in in the miscellaneous closet (linens+) in the MBR. When we created our walk-in closet, which is up 4 steps from the main part of the MBR (on the same level as the great room), we built a storage area under it. It opens almost fully -14' ft long, 3' deep, 3' high). Perfect for luggage, including one suitcase in which we store ski clothes, and one duffel bag in which my DH keeps all his soccer refereeing gear. For a condo, we have an amazing amount of storage space, much of which we created.

Vacuum: coat closet (Dyson). Mops and brooms: garage, right by the door. I have a handheld Dyson in the utility room, I use it daily.

I have two, one a older dyson which I love, for upstairs, I keep in the home office closet. The newer one for downstairs, is a shark, which I dont love so much, I keep the shark in one of the spare bedrooms where we have a bunch of furniture and accessories we didnt have room for in the downsize. I keep my dust mops and swiffer in the corner of the pantry.

Central Vac. and attachments are in it's closet in the gar. and I keep a lil stick vac. for quick clean ups in laundry rm. closet.

This house is just 1700 square feet and was built in 1926. Not much convenient storage space. When we remodeled the kitchen we moved the laundry to the only hall closet. So the vacuum and such got moved to a kitchen cupboard, designed for this purpose.

Luggage lives on a shelf in the garage. Not ideal, but there's no where inside to store it.

I keep mine in the broom closet in the hall. We do not have a coat closet, since it is never cold enough to need coats. I also keep my ironing board in the broom closet, along with brooms and mops and a 3-step stepladder. I have a two-step stepladder in the kitchen, wedged next to the pantry, for reaching items in the upper shelves of the upper cabinets.

I would have dearly loved to put in a central vac system when we did the original buy/gut/remodel. But alas, we ran out of money and in the interim two decades there are so many other things that take precedence - like a new roof, painting the house, replacing dead appliances, updating the kitchen and bathrooms, solar panel install, and the latest, a master bedrm remodel (which is a full one-quarter of our modest 2bd cottage).

But when I did the original redesigned layout for this house 25 yrs ago, I put in every bit of storage I could - both built-in and freestanding. But of course, it's never enough [smile]. Like many here I was frustrated having to lug the vacuum up and down stairs (it's heavy!) and didn't really have any place convenient for it.

I recently bought the Hoover Windtunnel Cordless and am in love with it. We no longer have pets and so this battery-powered vacuum works great for a quick, easy cleaning on both our HW floors and Oriental rugs.

About 3 yrs ago we had a carpenter install a double custom cabinet on our small back porch, and specified one-third of it to comfortably fit any full-size upright or cannister. It's downstairs and will be used for the vacuum for the MBR suite. There are hooks for hoses. Bags/filters go in the cabinet next to it, which has floor to ceiling 10" deep shelves for all my extra cleaning supplies, water filters, boxes of garbage bags, DW detergent and rinse aid, etc. A Swiffer mop and hand duster, plus refills, also fit into this double closet.

On the main floor we have 4 small and one large closet. The large closet and one small closet are extra deep. The upstairs vacuum, which will probably be a Sanitaire, will go in the large closet in the front/spare bedroom, which is convenient to all the rooms since each floor is only 860 sq. ft. total. We recently reorganized most of our closets and there's plenty of room for it and all the attachments. The small extra deep closet now holds extra kitchen pantry items (non-food), like the 24 rolls of paper towel refills and the stack of brown paper grocery bags we use for recycling compostables.

I have a small cordless hand vacuum from Black & Decker that I've been very happy with. Surprising amount of suction and so much less fuss than a corded hand vacuum. I just tried one of the lower-end Shark electric brooms and it's useless. The B&D actually has more suction and is less trouble to use, which surprised me. I need a wall holder for the B&D, though. Haven't hit the stores yet to find one. In a pinch I can hide it in a wastebasket, LOL.

Despite the modest size of the house, because we originally had to do foundation work, we were able to add a substantial laundry/utility room next to the one-car inner garage. I was not able to fit in a laundry sink, but there is a full 12x18 room just for storage, separate from the furnace/WH/W&D.

We fitted it up with steel storage units, both closed and open. Luggage, wine, canned/dry food, extra linens and rugs, paint/hardware supplies, boxes of books - pretty much anything that needs a home except for garden stuff - can all fit in here. The ShopVac, for instance, is here, along with free-standing closet rods for when my DH does the laundry (what a sweetie!)

There's also a storage shed on the property, which is one of my future projects! We moved a bunch of older storage organizers out there, so it's functional but not very attractive. It's about the same size as the indoor utility room, 12x18.

Even though the size of the house is modest, the storage capacity is exceptional (we also have an attic we added for even more storage, but it requires a ladder for access). It just took us a while to gather the $$$ to finish it off the way we wanted.