The Old-School Cleaning Tool Boomers Had That We'd Still Use Today

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Anyone who has ever tried to clean a thick carpet by sweeping it with a broom understands why vacuum cleaners were invented. The first vacuums, which appeared around 1860, were bulky devices without electric motors that you had to crank by hand, so it was a relief when Melville Bissell introduced a carpet sweeper in 1876 that didn't require all that effort. The rotating brush that did the sweeping was connected to the wheels. All you had to do was push the device along the floor, using the long handle to pick up dirt and deposit it into a canister that was easy to empty. 

It was a simple concept, and it was popularized in part by Queen Victoria, who had the royal palace "bisselled" every week. Because of its simplicity and effectiveness, the Bissell sweeper is an invention that has stood the test of time, remaining popular with boomers throughout the 20th century. You can find ads for it in popular mid-century magazines, including Life, which in 1967 ran an ad for the Gemini sweeper, which was the basic Bissell model with two rolling brushes instead of one. Many of us would still use mechanical sweepers today — and some brands continue to make them.

Bissell isn't the only company that manufactures what have come to be known as carpet sweepers. Other well-known brands are Fuller Brush, Rubbermaid, and Eyliden. Bissell still gets the best marks, however, as it did right from the start, when competitors couldn't quite duplicate its maneuverability and effectiveness.

There doesn't seem to be much use for a mechanical carpet sweeper in an era of powerful vacuums, but if that were true, models like the Bissell Easy Sweep Compact Carpet & Floor Sweeper wouldn't be getting a solid 4.0 rating from over 16,000 reviewers. The Bissell Natural Sweep Carpet and Floor Sweeper, a modern version of the Gemini sweeper, does even better, with a 4.1 rating from almost 38,000 reviewers. Carpet sweepers from competing manufacturers also get high scores.

People like carpet sweepers because they're lightweight and they're easy to carry from one part of the house to another, or up and down stairs. That makes them great for spot cleaning when you don't have time to pull out a vacuum and plug it in. And unlike a much more expensive cordless stick vacuum, it will work even if you have a power outage or you forget to charge the battery. Moreover, it has few moving parts to malfunction, no filters to replace, and if it should happen to clog, which is rare, it's easy to unclog.

A carpet sweeper is almost as easy to store as a broom, and it has a low profile that allows it to fit under beds and other furniture. Moreover, it doesn't make any noise, which is a boon for households with sleeping children or pets that get easily startled. These are some reasons why it's still a popular cleaning product.