My top 5 home gadgets

We all love a gadget, right? Designed to make our lives that little bit easier and constantly reinventing themselves with more sleek and clever designs. I rely heavily on a few of these in my home. Without them, I think I’d be rather lost. You don’t need to spend a fortune either. There are some gems out there that perform amazingly well without breaking the bank. I’ve narrowed it down to my top five!

If you would like to purchase any of the below, simply click on the heading and it will direct you straight to the website.

Shark liftaway NV800UK

The best vacuum in town. If you follow me on Instagram and watch my daily insta stories, you’ll already know of my love for this product. I understand why some might be wary of this brand; their products seemed to explode onto the market from nowhere and suddenly we were bombarded with bloggers and instagrammers alike raving about this beast. People proclaimed to be throwing their Dysons in the skip and we, as a home loving community, found a new love for carpet tracks that this unique vacuum provides in abundance. GOALS. Every time I post a photo of those delightful little tracks I log on to countless messages from people excitedly tagging their friends and long-suffering partners with photos of their carpet goals! Now believe me when I say that this product not only lives up to the hype, it exceeds the hype! This vacuum has a suction like nothing else you’ll have experienced before. So strong, that my husband unknowingly sucked up a perfectly white pair of my daughter’s ankle socks which had been abandoned on the carpet. I used to happily vacuum Leo’s little rug in his bedroom. It’s necessary as there are usually some remains of Ritz crackers embedded in there! However, the first time I naively attempted this with the shark, it literally ate the rug! I managed to stop it in time to rescue the rug, luckily, and I’ve never made that same mistake again! My point is, you need this vacuum in your life if you have carpets and especially if you have ‘cracker loving’ children (or children that are just crackers). You simply won’t believe the dirt it will pull up from your seemingly clean carpets. But what I love most about my shark is how it makes my carpets look. They have very thick, deep piles and whilst my isense carpets are still beautiful and silky, my Invictus carpets have flattened terribly in ‘high traffic’ areas. My shark pulls the pile up to make it bouncy again, almost like it’s had a little blow dry! After a quick whizz around with this, once again I see footprints in my carpet which were long gone due to flattening. The bouncy effects don’t last, but if I do this daily it keeps it looking wonderful and new again You can also use this on hardwood floors and tiles, adjusting at the click of a switch. Have I raved enough? If you take one thing from this post, let it be that you need a shark in your life. For those of you who can’t be doing with dragging a cord around (it’s a pain but you get used to it) they also have a new cordless model IF250UK  ( 10% discount code – peonycc10 ) and whilst its suction does not quite rival its predecessor, it gives it a damn good run for its money! It also stores like a pro, it bends in half and slides into the smallest of spaces.

Both, of course, come with attachments to vacuum the stairs, pet hair, car, ledges – you name it. Genius.

Karcher WV5 Plus window vacuum cleaner
I’ve not given this ingenious product the recognition it deserves on my Instagram page; however, I use it all the time and I love it just as much as when I bought it two years ago. This is a battery operated handheld vacuum that uses an innovative cleaning system to leave your windows sparkling and completely streak free. This nifty little vacuum sucks away the moisture and dirt from your windows into its tank so there’s no need to wipe or buff. Even in sunshine I don’t find a single streak! Perfect for parents of sticky handed toddlers who are always attracted to those shiny patio doors. Now the instructions will tell you to use their detergent, which is good, however, I prefer to fill a bowl with warm soapy water, clean my windows with a cloth and then let the karcher work on whatever’s left. As a child I used to love watching window cleaners magically scrape away at soapy shop windows, leaving it completely spotless and shiny, was it just me who did that? So I find it overly satisfying having the same effect in my own home. Don’t stop at the windows, use it in your car, shower screen, oven door, tiles and mirrors. You can even use it to suck up spillages with ease. What more could you ask?

JML Whizz mop

It’s one of my most frequently asked questions: How do you get your floor tiles so shiny? The secret is all in this mop and it’s cheap! This mop has a 360 degree spinning head so you can pump the excess water out the mop before it touches your floor. Gone are the days of manually wringing out your mop which is time consuming and cumbersome. This does all the work for you with the pump of a foot pedal. I fill the bucket with boiling water, a small dash of floor cleaner and a capful of zoflora (my favourite scents are bluebell woods and twilight garden). I then pump almost all the water out the mop so it is left only slightly damp. THAT is the secret. Damp. Never wet. Streaky floors will be a distant (bad) memory. This method will also leave your floors smelling heavenly. I’d love to tell you that this product is beautifully made, however with it being cheap, it’s not the most durable. I will admit I’ve been through maybe 3 of these over the past 4 years which, considering I use it daily, isn’t too bad. But I always keep my receipt and return it to Argos when the foot pump gives up (perhaps I’m a bit over zealous with the pumping?) and get a shiny new one. I also have the Shark Klick n’ Flip steam mop which has minimal smearing. I use this once a week to give my floor a deep clean and it is by far superior to any of the steam mop I’ve had in the past.

Hand Held Steam Cleaner
Now I don’t have a fancy model. You don’t need to spend too much at all. The main benefit of these is the power of steam cleaning without the additional need for any need for chemicals. They’re great if you have a baby or young family as they blast away germs and bacteria with the power of steam. They do a fabulous job of cleaning the oven, tile grout and those niggly hard to clean areas around your shower base. The one job I really love to use this for is that impossible to reach area between the spindles of my bannister and the wall which collects endless mounds of fluff. The high-pressure steam is so powerful it literally gusts it all away effortlessly. Much easier than trying to wriggle through the spindles with a baby wipe!

Ninja kitchen Food Processor NN100UK

Now this is the anomaly of my post, as it’s not a cleaning gadget, but I couldn’t not include it! This nifty device is really something special. It’s truly versatile and you can knock up an array of tempting dishes in the kitchen with its help. You can of course make soups, sauces and marinades but we love to use it for smoothies, slushes and most importantly – cocktails! My husband has a real talent for making cocktails. So much so, that I seriously grudge paying £7 in a bar for something which is totally substandard to the homemade goodness I’ve become accustomed to. We have tried with numerous gadgets to get the perfect smooth, slushy ice consistency that is a delightful daquiri. We could never get it right….. until we got this. It makes them to absolute perfection. We’ve tried mango, strawberry and banana versions – all dangerously delicious! During the hot summer months, (days!) we experimented with various ingredients in mastering the perfect smoothie and were always delighted with the results. Perhaps you would like a blog post of our recipes for our favourites?

Pinkpeony10 will give you 10% off this too!

So, there you have it. If you have these bad boys in your life, you’ll have an extra little spring in your step, trust me! I’d love to know, what are your must have gadgets in your home?

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