I don’t know what it is that makes me think I can be a domestic goddess if I just put my mind to it, but I’m blaming Martha Stewart, and her magazines.

In my head, I live in one of those white houses with stylishly distressed Scandinavian looking furniture, wooden floorboards and casually – yet stylishly – strewn about accessories from Boden-approved hobbies like, erm, sailing and lacrosse. Needless to say in my fantasy life (which I basically stole from Pinterest) my house is GLEAMING.

In reality, I live in a Victorian town-house with a tiny back garden, a damp problem, and not a square corner to be found. None of the furniture matches, and while I’m reasonably tidy on a good day, housework is not my forte.  My kitchen floor is wobbly with tiles that move, and break – because the previous occupants used the wrong sort of adhesive, apparently. At some point, I’ll earn enough money to put down a completely new floor, but in the meantime, the kitchen floor is always, always a complete mess.

So I was pathetically grateful when Vax gave me the opportunity to try out not one, but two, cleaning gadgets. I don’t often do reviews on this site but these things are seriously amazing. My kitchen floor is now Pinterest-worthy. Oh yes, friends. It’s that good.

First up, the Vax Steam Floor Pro. This is a steam cleaner, but not like the cumbersome, heavy things I’ve seen before. It’s really light, small enough to store down the side of my fridge, and really easy to use – you just pour in some water, some special detergent, and turn on – the whole thing’s ready to use in 2 minutes flat, and once you’re done, you just peel off the cleaning pad at the bottom and chuck it in the washing machine. It cleaned my floor better than anything I’ve ever used before, and because it’s a steam cleaner, it has lots of hygiene benefits too. You can use the cleaner on wood floors as well as tiles/lino/stone, which is handy. Thoroughly recommended.

Secondly, I tested the Air Reach vacuum cleaner. I know what you’re thinking. It’s a vacuum cleaner. What’s interesting about that? Well, this is the first vacuum I’ve ever used that picks up human hair from the floor. Before you all assume I’m a serial killer – I have long hair, and when you have long hair, it sheds EVERYWHERE. With the result that my beige bedroom floor looks sort of grey a lot of the time, covered with a fine layer of hair that laughs in the face of my own cleaner. The Vax made the carpet look like new. As an added bonus, it’s really light, and you can lift off the handle and use it as an extendible hose – which reaches all the way up the stairs. Ideal for lazy types who would rather be looking at other people’s lovely houses on Pinterest than actually cleaning their own houses. *cough* What I will say is the Air Reach is a bit fiddly to empty out – it took a bit of prodding with a wooden spoon to encourage the bagless cylinder to empty into the bin. But aside from that, I loved it, and would recommend it, if you need something light and easy to use.

Disclosure: We were provided with samples for the purposes of this review. All opinions, as ever, are my own.Â