Unless you’re being paid handsomely to do it, no one wants to spend all their time cleaning. But entropy is inescapable, and though the war against dirt can never be truly won, technology can make each battle with it much easier.
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If you’ve got someone on your shopping list that always seems overwhelmed by a mess they just can’t seem to get ahead of, these cleaning-focused gadgets will be a welcome shortcut to helping them achieve some much needed peace of mind.
For keeping floors spotless
Dyson V12 Detect Slim Vacuum: Your floor may look clean to the naked eye, but in reality, there’s probably a layer of dust and other microscopic bits of dirt endlessly collecting there. The $449 Dyson V12 Detect is one of the renowned company’s more affordable cordless vacuums, and features a cleaning head with a laser that illuminates everything the eye can’t see. Its rechargeable battery and dirt detection tech promises a run time of up to an hour (depending on how dirty a floor is).
iRobot Roomba j7+ Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum: We haven’t quite reached the future science fiction promised us, where robots would be serving our every need, but they’re at least quite good at cleaning our floors. The $495 iRobot Roomba j7+ can not only map your home so it knows where it has and hasn’t cleaned, but it can also find its way back to its dock, which automatically charges the bot and empties its dust bin for you.
Dyson Omni-glide Cordless Vacuum: For those living in smaller spaces, Dyson describes its $349 Omni-Glide cordless cleaner as being its “slimmest, most maneuverable vacuum.” It weighs less than five pounds and its compact cleaning head uses a pair of spinning brushes that can grab and suck up dirt against walls or furniture. It boasts 20 minutes of suction on a full charge.
Tineco Floor ONE S5 Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner: Are you still cleaning your floor using a mop that simply squirts cleaning solution? If so, you’re mostly just pushing dirty water around. The $500 Tineco Floor ONE S5 is a cordless vacuum that also features a wet mopping head. Clean water from an onboard reservoir is used to scrub hard floors, while dirty water is sucked back up into a separate tank that can be easily emptied afterwards.
Bissell Little Green Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner: Accidents happen, but when little kids or pets are added to the mix, accidents happen even more. The $122 Bissel Little Green Machine can ensure that that spills on carpets and upholstery don’t turn into permanent stains. It’s got two tanks on board, one for cleaning solution and one for the dirt it sucks off fabrics and carpeting. The tanks are transparent, so you can see how effectively it works.
For dealing with real life kitchen nightmares
Black+Decker Power Scrubber Brush: Even a dishwasher is sometimes no match for a sink full of dirty dishes When scrubbing by hand is the only path to clean dishes again, Black+Decker’s $19 Power Scrubber Brush will handle all the hard work for you. It comes with two swappable scrubbing pads, runs on four AA batteries, and is completely submersible, making it a welcome sidekick for the kitchen sink.
Comfee Countertop Mini Dishwasher: Not every home has room for a full-sized dishwasher, but if there’s roughly 17-inches of countertop space available, the $255 Comfee countertop dishwasher can automatically clean two place settings worth of plates, bowls, cups and cutlery. Instead of having to attach it to a faucet, the Comfee has a five liter water tank that’s filled before every cleaning cycle, and a drain hose you stick in the sink. It even has a drying mode, and can optionally be used to clean fresh fruit.
Thanko Kurusara Wash Handheld Dishwasher: For homes that don’t even have enough room for a countertop dishwasher, Thanko’s $70 Kurusara Wash offers more or less the same functionality in a handheld device that looks like an over-sized mechanical insect. It’s designed to securely grab hold of plates and bowls and then spin them so a built-in brush can scrub away dirt. It can keep hands out of dirty dishwater, and as an added bonus, it can be used single-handedly, freeing up another hand for other chores.
Samsung Jetbot Mop: Bringing one unique feature that most robotic floor moppers don’t have, Samsung’s $240 Jetbot Mop can scrub hard floors all on its own using a pair of spinning scrubbing pads, a 100-minute rechargeable battery and a pair of cleaning solution tanks. What makes it stand out is a handle on top, allowing the Jetbot Mop to be held and also used as an automatic scrubber for tiled walls in kitchens and bathrooms.
For deep cleaning AirPods, keyboards and phones
Nitecore BB2 Rechargeable Air Duster: If you know someone constantly spending money on non-refillable cans of compressed air to blast dirt and dust off of their delicate electronics, gift them the $70 BB2 air blower from Nitecore. At full power, it can dislodge nearly any debris with a 50 MPH blast of air, while at lower intensities it can run for nearly 35 minutes on a full charge of its battery.
Belkin Apple AirPods Cleaning Kit: Is it really a surprise that the gadgets we regularly stick inside our ears get incredibly dirty? A wireless earbud covered in ear wax is not only disgusting, but can also sound worse. Belkin’s $15 AirPods Cleaning Kit is an easy solution that works with all versions of AirPods except the Pros and the Max. It includes earwax softener, a gentle scrub brush, a microfiber cloth and a cleaning gel that helps extract every last bit of wax.
Philips UV Light Sanitizer Box: The gadgets you poke at and press against your face all day long are filthy at the microscopic level. Philips’ $100 UV Light Sanitizer Box uses nothing but specific wavelengths of ultraviolet light to effectively kill microscopic parasites. It’s a safe way to sterilize everything from smartphones to baby bottles, because there’s no chemicals or cleaning agents used. You just plug it in, close the lid, and wait a few minutes for a cleaning cycle to finish.
For those in desperate need of a breath of fresh air
Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Air Purifier: It’s not always easy to pinpoint the source of unpleasant odors in a home, but it’s relatively easy to make them much less noticeable. This $200 Coway Airmega air purifier uses a four stage filtration system to remove 99.97% of particles in the air, effective down to as small as 0.3 microns in size. That includes odor-causing compounds, pollutants and even allergens, which could help turn someone’s home into a welcome refuge during allergy season.
Panasonic nanoe X Portable In-Vehicle Air Cleaner: That new car smell that some find so intoxicating is not exactly a healthy thing to be inhaling. But in some vehicles, that’s the least of the concerning smells. When simply rolling down the windows isn’t enough, Panasonic’s $160 nanoe X portable air purifier is designed to sit inside a cup holder, where it uses a whisper quiet fan to draw air in and purify it using charged atomized water particles that can remove pollutants, odors and even bacteria and allergens.