Vacuum Handles

Having recently helped a friend to move house, I’ve become aware that many household items, while not being particularly heavy, are awkward as hell to get you fingers around. Sometimes you need two people to move something which (weightwise) could be easily carried by one, or you find yourself having to use two hands to cradle something which is light enough to be carried with one hand. Thus an already tiresome task takes twice as long as it should to accomplish.

Vacuum Handles are the answer. Taking the humble Dust Devil as my inspiration (a handheld tiny vacuum cleaner for those of you not in the know), I’m imagining a kind of handle-shaped tube, with the centre wrapped in easily-gripped foam rubber, and both ends actually being small but very high-powered vacuum cleaners. The centre of the tube contains the (rechargeable) power source for the twin vacuums, and each end has a sucker-like cup built of very flexible rubber. These rubber cups don’t actually provide any sticking power on their own, they just allow the vacuums a greater area of purchase on whatever it is you’re trying to move.

Need to shift a TV? Not a problem. Affix a Vacuum Handle to the screen, switch it on, and you can move it one-handed, leaving your other hand free to carry something else. A washing machine? The Vacuum Handle takes it in its stride, albeit after you’ve cranked the power up to full and bought a half-dozen of them. Might also be useful for moving the slightly skittish cat that hides under the bed as the whole flat is removed from under it.

I should add that I’m typing this with really sore fingers after spending an afternoon shoving them into awkward nooks and crannies of household appliances that I never knew existed. I would have explained this idea better, but it’s kind of sore to type… Nature might abhor a vacuum, but I would have loved to have had a couple of them to hand today.

And also, once you have moved, the Handles still come in handy for double-barelled dust-busting purposes.