Vacuum away those OCD worries

(Credit: Hammacher Schlemmer)

Sure, we have germ-killing handheld devices in various sizes. There's just one problem, as every germaphobe knows: They require you to get uncomfortably close to the potential contaminants at hand.

That's why we're so delighted to see products like this germ-eliminating vacuum cleaner, which uses a HEPA filter that catches the usual 99.97 percent of cooties as promised by most other gadgets of this kind. (We live in fear of encountering whatever's in that remaining 0.03 percent.)

Best of all, this upright machine with its telescoping wand and crevice nozzle allows us to do battle with the enemy at more than arm's length--a crucial advantage to those of us in the OCD community. Now if we can only figure out how to keep its particles from going anywhere near the toothbrush cleaner.