As someone who works from home and who also seems to always have a houseful of people, was interesting to see that ‘Effortless Cleaning’ was one of the categories in this year’s global Electrolux Design Lab competition - and while I’ve not yet had a chance to look at all of the 1700 submissions, one that I have seen is ‘Smart-Floor’.

Considered by the judges to be amongst the 100+ best ideas, Smart-Floor is a self-cleaning, anti-slip, three-ply floor with in-built bacteria repellent, which is also porous to allow spillages to drip through where they are absorbed by a material in the core. A vacuum system powered by solar panels and installed in the skirting boards provides constant suction power through special fins, sucking up dust in the air and thus cleaning the air in the room.

I was thinking that while the competition is still in its early stages, it could just be that a product such as this could end up winning and thus go into manufacture, perhaps one day changing the world of cleaning as we know it. I've often wondered what the world might look like in the future, but have to confess that I'd never really thought about the cleaning side of it. This competition has now got me wondering and I'm really looking forward to checking out some of the other designs that have been put forward. As they say, "Watch this space!"

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Yours,

Jan Hobbs