Then: In 1907, William Henry Hoover produced the first commercial bag-on-a-stick upright vacuum cleaner in Ohio, USA. He bought the design patent from his wife's cousin, James Murray Spangler, who had tried to put together an electric fan, a box, and one of his wife's pillowcases to loosen debris. Hoover redesigned the machine with a steel casing, casters, and attachments, and the rest was cleaning history.
Now: Self-vacuuming gadgets like the iRobot Roomba, the Mint, and the Dyson DC06 help shorten your chore list.