It easily picks up lint, crumbs, pet hair and tracked in dirt. The handle lies flat so you can reach under furniture. The most amazing thing is there is no cord, broom or dustpan to deal with and it does not require electricity – not even batteries!
Yep – what is old is new again, and the darn thing works fantastically.
What I am talking about is the Bissell Sweep Up carpet sweeper. I just happened to stumble onto one of these little wonders at Big Lot’s one day for the partly sum of $12.00. Shucks, for twelve bucks I thought I would give it a try.
Every RV we have owned had some carpet. Our current fifth wheel has carpet in the living area and the bedroom. Even with a front door mat, we continually track in stuff and Oscar, bless his little heart, sheds fine little black hairs all the time.
The makers of our RV installed a Dirt Devil central vacuum. It is a nice accessory but you still have to drag out a bulky 30-foot long hose, tubes and attachments to vacuum the carpets. You also need 120-volt electricity, which we don’t always have, and the noise is worse than a jet plane flying overhead.
Enter the Bissell Sweep Up.
Melvin Bissell circa 1870
This little device, invented by Melvin Bissell in the late 1800’s, has a detachable handle and stores most anywhere in a RV.
But does it work?
My Gosh! You betcha’! This little, inexpensive machine quickly and easily picks up dirt from not only the carpet but also the hard surface kitchen floor. It is absolutely amazing how well it works.
It is funny how you forget the simple things. You see, I grew up thinking it took a $1,000 Electrolux, Kirby, or Rainbow vacuum peddled from a door-to-door salesman to clean carpets. But, I remember my grandmother using some sort of sweeping machine back in the 50’s to clean the rugs in her dining room and parlor. It was bigger than the Bissell Sweep up – or at least I remember it being bigger – and it must have done a good job because she never bought a vacuum cleaner. Of course, back in those days you occasionally took the rugs outdoors, hung them from a thick rope between two trees, and beat them with this metal thing that looked like a tennis racket. The dust would fly everywhere getting in your eyes, nose and covering your clothes.
Dirt Picked up by the Sweeper in a Single Cleaning
But, I digress. What I wanted to do in this blog was to share how simple this device is and how well it works. When I ran it over the carpets a few days ago, I picked up almost enough dog dander to make a new pooch – not to mention enough dirt to pot a tomato plant. The photo on the left is what I dumped out of the canister – you can get a good idea of how much it is by the print and photo on the newspaper it is resting on.
This machine, invented about 130 years ago, is perfect for keeping the carpets in your RV clean.
Four brushes lift dirt into the enclosed canister.
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Carpet Sweeper
This is really interesting, You are a very skilled blogger. Thanks a lot for this nice post.
Jeanne
We picked up one of these marvelous sweepers about 6 months ago for the motorhome and boy were we impressed! All the battery powered ones had issues. Either the batteries eventually would not hold a charge or no power to charge them…hence the sweeper. Or the Dirt Devil central vac, and again sometimes no power, unless we started up the generator…which is some cases wasn’t allowed except for certain hours. Now we’re thinking we might even get one for the house!
This is a great buy!
butterbean carpenter
Howdy Prof Randy 95,
You know you just ruined a bunch of door to door salesmen’s sales don’t you.. You should be ashamed
now they’ll throw that cup of dirt down on someone’s carpet and the ‘prospect’ will pull out their Bissell
carpet duster and clean it up before the salesman can get his vacuum sweeper put together… We have one and it works, very well.. Haven’t thought about using it in the RV, but will now…
Smooth roads, clear skies & balmy breezes !!!!!!!!
Gail Duykers
Thanks Professor. I had totally forgotten about this wonderful product. I just placed an order for one from their website and the shipping was free. Can’t wait for it to arrive. Thanks again for jogging my memory. Bounder Owner