S100 Sport Portable Canister Vacuum

I have the simplicity sport (which is a newer version of the same thing) and I've used it to clean offices and show homes with varying levels of success. Note that it absolutely has the suction to use it on low pile carpet with a combo brush head, but it won't drive a turbo brush very well. The other issue I ran into is that the spot on the handle where the suction control is is a weak point and I've snapped 2 vacuuming carpet and rugs.

Stairs can be annoying in general to clean, and I wouldn't say there's one single perfect machine for them tbh. Usually a corded handheld vacuum with a motorized brush is a good choice. The motorized brush is important so you have agitation and not just (weak) handheld suction. But handheld vacs like this are getting a bit harder to find. Dirt devil scorpion comes to mind, but I can't vouch for it's performance. The old school dirt devil handheld vacs with brush rollers and inflating bag on the back are great, but you'd have to find a used one. Another option could be a corded shoulder type mini canister vac, like the Simplicity sport, plus an air driven turbo brush. These provide better suction than the average handheld, plus better tools for the edges and corners of stairs, and a small air driven brush will provide brushing/agitation, all while still being lighter and easier to handle than a full sized vac with no battery worries. Another cheaper option could be the eureka mighty mite canister. It doesn't ride on your shoulder like the simplicity, but it's still small and lite enough for stairs, and has great suction. Add any generic mini turbo brush and it'll work great on stairs.

Congrats on your new job. Handheld vacuums under $50 are pretty useless, they have weak suction, tiny bins, and an extremely short run time. They usually have no cyclonic separation so all of the dirt immediately clogs the filter. You need at least a Dyson V8 sized handheld with multiple cyclones for decent suction power and filtration but I still hesitate to recommend a cordless handheld because using it for work will wear out the battery really fast. I would choose a small corded vacuum with a hose to get into tight corners like the Hoover Commerical Portapower $159 or Simplicity S100 Sport $179. And I wouldn't use a big shop vacuum for the heavy cleaning I'd use a better quieter vacuum like the Powr-Flite Newton with Turbo Brush $175. The Newton is much quieter than a shop vac, it uses large and cheap hepa bags. I'd get the version with the Turbo Brush since it's not that much more than the standard Newton. The Turbo brush can connect to the wand or directly to the hose and it will help you clean floor mats and carpeting. It's not a wet/dry vacuum but they should buy a proper extractor if they want you to shampoo the interiors. You can save a lot by looking for a used Hoover or Simplicity vacuums too. Metro Vac makes some very compact and durable canister vacuums like the Vac 'N Blo Jr and Data Vac, I always see several used that are under $100. The best deals on cordless vacuum I could find are the Hoover Onepwr DustChaser $94, the Hoover Onepwr Hand Vac $99, maybe the Hyper Tough 1.5 gallon Wet/Dry Cordless Vacuum with battery & charger $84. What do you think?

I have a few ideas: 1. Small corded shoulder vacuum. Oreck compact canister, Hoover Portapower, or Simplicity S100. These are small bagged canister vacuums that you must hold or use a shoulder strap. Suction-only so they're good on hard floors, just ok on rugs/carpets, no carpet powerhead. 2. A corded stick vacuum. Shark Rocket or similar. Many have carpet powerheads. Not the most durable vacuums. Bagless maintenance required means regularly washing the filters. 3. A small upright vacuum. Kenmore Intuition. It's a small bagged upright vacuum. It's as narrow as a cordless stick vacuum. The liftaway mode means you can separate the pieces for travel. It's lightweight but also not the most durable vacuum. The Kenmore Intuition is the most capable vacuum cleaner for hard floors and carpets of these options but also the takes up the most space on your cart. What do you think?

No, but longer than you think. I had a Kirby salesman come by once, he did get some dirt behind the Simplicity canister I'd been using - but then my old Kirby got dirt behind his. Not a lot, but some.