Dirt Devil Goes to the Beach

When Rex and the girls and I go to our beach house in Bay Head, New Jersey, there's little to no chance that we want to spend any time or energy on cleaning. "Let the sand in!" is one of the Rules of the Beach prominently posted in our Bay Head kitchen.

Now, there are all sorts of clever things people do to keep their homes clean without exerting much energy, but I haven't figured out the best one to suit our beach house. I know some people down South who keep a couple of goats named Thelma and Lance in their back yard to "mow" the grass without using any gas or electric energy. If someone spills some diinner on the kitchen floor, or some movie popcorn on the family room rug, they invite the two goats in to lap up the mess. But we really don't have room for a goat at our beach house in Bay Head, and our older daughter, London, would probably be allergic.

Instead, my secret energy-saving approach to housekeeping at the beach has been to leave the front door unlocked during the week when we're not around, waiting for the Dirt Thief to break, enter, and take the dirt away with him. I suspect that people come in all the time to use our bathroom on their way to and from the beach, and if each Dirt Thief would just take a handful of dust on his or her way out the door, we'd be spic and span in no time. Please don't bring up the "Dirt Thief" subject with Rex when you see us on the beach over Father's Day Weekend in Bay Head...you couldn't really say that Rex has been satisfied with my unique approach to cleaning.

Now one of our neighbors at the beach, who apparently wasn't stopping by to nominate me for the local Bay Head Chapter of Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, suggested that Dirt Devil has a better way to save energy on cleaning. The new AccuCharge Stick Vac and Hand Vac use 70% less energy – making AccuCharge the first cordless cleaning technology to earn Energy Star approval.

Let's have your vote here, friends and Bay Head neighbors...the Dirt Thief? Or the Dirt Devil?