New Gadgets from The Housewares Show

This weekend, I spent 19 hours in Chicago. Why? To attend The International Home + Housewares Show, which is the world’s premier housewares fair. Hoover (@HooverClean) invited me and a few other bloggers to come out and meet their team at their booth. I had never been to this conference before and was amazed at how HUGE it was--south hall, north hall, east, west. It was like the biggest Bed Bath and Beyond store ever with lots of Appliance parts like Whirlpool parts and lots of gadgets and products that had me oohing and ahhing.

At the Hoover booth, I wasn't sure what I'd see or hear, and I definitely didn't expect to want to purchase two of their products. We actually own a Hoover vacuum already, since my husband prefers the brand because they have a factory in El Paso, where he is from. However, he purchased the first one he saw, which happened to be bright yellow and not bagless *slaps forehead* definitely nothing as cool as the new ones that I saw. A new machine coming out, The Hoover FloorMate ($149.99) hard floor cleaner, is a 3-in-1 vacuum that dries and sucks up spills, washes floors and vacuums too. I really liked that it's multipurpose, has a simple selection dial to switch to the different modes and a power cord with quick release.

However, another model that turned my head, was the LiNX Stick Vacuum ($179.99), which I dubbed the iPod of vacuums, because of it's sleek design. It also only weighs 7 pounds and is cordless. This one would definitely work in my sized home, especially since it's just the two of us and it would fit right along side our broom and dust pan.

Strolling around the many different halls and booths, I spotted some other cool inventions like the Babycakes cupcake maker ($30) from Select Brands that bakes 8 mini cupcakes in just 5-8 minutes! You simply fill the molds with regular cupcake mix, without cupcake liners and bake. It's like a grown up Easy Bake Oven and it even comes in pink and yellow pastel colors.

Speaking of cupcakes, I also saw a cupcake frosting decorator from NordicWare that eliminates the need for those messy icing bags, that I can never control, rinse or use properly. This hand held press (like a cookie press) makes it definitely more point and shoot, thus perfect for decorating those fast baking cupcakes.

I couldn't help but notice that many booths and brands were promoting new fashionable humidifiers including a travel one from Air-O-Swiss, modernized models coming soon from HoMedics and even bright colored ones from Crane. Some even came with aromatherapy solutions to mix into the water. Katie Sotor, a salesperson at Crane, which makes fun kid-friendly looking humidifiers (below) including a Hello Kitty and Sponge Bob Sqarepants ones, says that due to the outbreak of swine flu more pediatricians are recommending cool mist humidifiers again because they are a more natural remedy for colds than overusing medicines. Although I grew up with one, it does seems they went out of fashion for awhile, so I'm glad to see that they are coming back and with sleeker designs. Personally, I have my eye on Crane's Pink Ribbon tear drop shaped one for my bedroom.

I also spent some time at the Epilady booth as I've been hearing a lot about epilators lately. I currently use an electric shaver, but this acts like an electric tweezer and grabs the hairs at the root, thus eliminating the need to shave as often. However, I hear it hurts, at least the first time, but I'm hoping to try one of their models soon, so more to come on that.

While walking around the booths, I also stumbled upon Chef Gordon Ramsay again. He was at the at Sensio Inc booth to promote his small kitchen appliance line with the company that is set to hit US retail stores fall 2010.

Oh, and I just had to take a photo of all these colorful Kitchen Aid mixers lined up on display (I have a red one!):


In conjunction with this blog post, I attended the International Home & Housewares show and met with the Hoover brand team and their public relations firm Current. They covered my transportation costs, hotel room, and pass to the show. I also received a pair of black BearPaw slippers.