One thing that I’ve decided in my big spring clean of Miranda is that while my mini wet/dry shop vac serves its purpose really well, it’s a pain to use for daily cleaning because it means I have to get on my hands and knees to vacuum the edges of the floor after I sweep. I am glad to have it for sucking up cat litter and that will continue to be its job. But I need another option for the rest of the rig.

I did some research and decided that a stick vac that converts to a hand vac would be the most useful in a tiny home with no carpet, as well as being easy to store.

I’ve been checking the Canadian Tire flier for a few weeks and the vacuums finally went on sale this week! I decided on a Dirt Devil model for $29. Dirt Devil is barely a step up from Shark, but I figured that it would hold up long enough for me to get my money’s worth.

The Dirt Devil model was available in black and in blue. I cracked open one of the boxes and knew immediately that I wasn’t going to waste $30 on that piece of junk; the plastic just looked really cheap. The next model up was a Dyson, on sale for $119. Dyson makes a great vacuum, but it’s overkill for me. So I decided to wait and headed out of the store when I noticed that there was a box way way in the back of the shelf next to the Dirt Devil model. I wrestled it out and discovered a Bissell stick vac.

I am thrilled with my Bissell little green machine, so I looked for a price tag and let out a mental YAY when I saw that it was the same price as the Dirt Devil!

So I was happy to bring home this blue BISSELL 3106A Featherweight Lightweight Vacuum, also called a ‘magic vac’.

It comes in three parts: the beater bar assembly, the hand vac, and the handle. It assembles easily and has a removable dust cup (no bag). I like things that I can use a minute after I take it out of the box without having to refer to the instruction manual. 🙂 I immediately tested it out and appreciated having a lightweight hand vac that can suck dirt along the edges of the floor without my being bent over. It sucks well on bare floor and only uses 1.2 amps, which means that I will be able to use it when boondocking.

I’m not sure that I would recommend it for folks with carpet because it didn’t do a great job on the carpet in The Apartment, but the carpeting in here is really weird and attracts fuzz like nobody’s business. The Bissell did do a great job on the rug that I put down over the main part of the living area so it might be fine on some types of carpets.

As is typical when embarking on a project about which I know little, I’m very behind on my electrical timeline. But I am making process! I finally got the first of the two new outlets installed.

Disclaimer: I am not an electrician. All of this applies to my own rig using advice from a trusted electrician. I am not responsible if you use any information from this post and damage your RV!

There were a couple of problems with the work I did last time. Croft told me that I had way too much bare wire and that I should only expose as much as I need to wrap around the screws. So I rewired the outlet like so:

I did two wraps around the screws, so the ends are bits that just didn’t fit and were too small to be snipped away

He also informed me that I needed a box to protect the outlet. Eep! No stock boxes exist that would fit the height profile of the cabinet. So I made my own out of a stiff plastic tub that I screwed into the cabinet. Never one to be too cautious, I then taped around it to make sure that everything is secure:

Hey, it looks like an outlet!

The new outlet actually feels more secure than the old one. I haven’t tested it yet with the power on, but when I tried to plug something into it, the outlet didn’t move. The old one used to push up into the cabinet a little.

Now, the other outlet was a little more finicky and by the time I figured out how to use the wall-mount case, I was beyond frustrated. So I’ll come back to it, and the 12V outlet, tomorrow.