Cleaning the areas that we live and work in has always been part of our lives. Even people living in caves have found ways to keep their living areas relative clean. The first means of cleaning were through the use of twigs and sticks. With the many chores that occupy a common homeowner, inventions were continually being introduced to make the simple chore of house cleaning less tedious. Who would have thought that years later a machine that was intentionally used for sweeping the floor would be manufactured in all shapes and sizes?

The first vacuum cleaners invented weighed almost a hundred pounds and were too big to easily move around. The later improved designs introduced more choices. In the early 1900s, when vacuum cleaners were gaining popularity across America, a man named Murray Spangler built a vacuum cleaner,(originally called a "suction sweeper") prototype intended to suck the dust to prevent his allergies. He convinced his cousin Susan Hoover to try the machine by cleaning her house with it. Susan was so convinced that she and her husband, William Henry Hoover began producing more of the Spangler design and sold it across America.

For many years the Hoover was the most popular brand sold in the United States, mainly because William Henry Hoover offered buyers to use the sweeper for 10 days before they purchase it. Since then, Hoover became a household name: along with the latest home appliance we now call a vacuum cleaner, and the popular Hoover vacuum cleaners bags.

Hoover was the first to use a cloth filter bag, which is what we know now as the vacuum cleaner bag, and cleaning attachments. An addition to this cleaner's salability is its weight. The new machine weighed only 40 pounds, more than half of the original cleaners' weight. In the UK, Hoover cleaners were sold with the slogan "It beats as it sweeps as it cleans," attributed mainly to the beater bar that came along with it. This greatly increased the cleaning efficiency and is use by most upright vacuum cleaners.

From 1926 to the present, Hoover vacuum cleaners have been through many model changes to increase the dirt removal efficiency by increasing its suction power. New designs in vacuum cleaner bags also helped cleaning efficiency. This allowed homeowner to easily dispose of the collected dust and then reattaching a new one to continue their cleaning task at hand.

James Dyson's vacuum design was originally offered to the Hoover Company for manufacturing and product release, however, the company foolishly declined. Years later when Dyson's design turned out to be the best in the world, Hoover announced that declining the Dyson design was their biggest regret.

Recently people have found that the new HEPA vacuum cleaner bags have become much improved. The filters within these bags do a much better job of removing dust, pathogens and dust mites then their predicessors. They are convenient for homeowners who usually wants an easier and faster way to dispose of the dirt collected in the vacuum. With a vacuum cleaner bag, it's as easy as attaching the new bag, turning on the vacuum cleaner and then start cleaning. If you use a bag less vacuum you do not have to purchase bags but removing the dirt from the vacuum cleaner is usually a dirty task. Hoover's new models now include bagless vacuum cleaners, which in turn resulted to more portable and smaller models.

Many people, especially homeowners would argue that the invention of the vacuum cleaner was one of the top inventions of the 20th century. The Hoover was the first commercially successful vacuum cleaner that made cleaning less of a chore. Every homeowner will be forever be thankful for this invention.