Design expertise in your inbox – from inspiring decorating ideas and beautiful celebrity homes to practical gardening advice and shopping round-ups.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
If you find your dustbin fills up too quickly, forcing you to stop mid-clean to empty it, then your vacuum cleaner isn't equipped for the size of your house.
Large spaces need a large vacuum, such as the Shark POWERDETECT Upright, that can cover more than double the area a cordless vacuum can, without stoppages or interruptions.
And as the Shark POWERDETECT Upright is one of the best vacuums we've tested for deep-cleaning suction, with a 12-inch-wide floorhead that covers a lot of ground at once, its large dustbin is important for holding all the messes of a big, messy home.
The Shark POWERDETECT Upright Is the Ideal Cleaning Companion for Large, Messy Homes
The Shark POWERDETECT Upright has a 2.02qt dustbin, meaning it can cover more than double the floor space of most of the best cordless vacuums, which average around 0.8qt.
It also has a 12-inch-wide floorhead, so its cleaning path is significantly larger than that of smaller vacuums, making quick work of bigger areas. Cordless vacuums, and some canister vacuums, typically have floorheads that are 7-10 inches wide, so with the Shark POWERDETECT Upright, you're covering more of the floor with each motion and getting to the finish quicker, without compromising the thoroughness of the clean.
When you pair this with immensely powerful suction that, on test, removed all visible dust, dirt, and hair in one go, each pass with the Shark POWERDETECT Upright deep cleans a large area of your floor, making it the perfect floorcare solution for big homes.
Other features make it a convenient helper for large homes, too, such as sensors that adapt to your floors, meaning if you move from hard floors to carpets, it automatically changes the settings for the best and fastest clean.
Family homes with pets often need cleaning as frequently as multiple times a day, and fiddling around with the settings, as well as stopping mid-flow to empty the dust bin, can become frustrating amidst a busy environment. That's where the Shark POWERDETECT Upright makes life easier by handling those adjustments and giving you a heavily bolstered dust capacity.
The Shark POWERDETECT Upright is available for $449 at SharkNinja.
More to Shop
As Homes & Gardens' home tech editor and resident vacuum tester, the Shark POWERDETECT Upright is the model I consistently recommend to consumers looking for a deep-cleaning floorcare solution for their large homes.
But it isn't the only vacuum cleaner I recommend to make life easier when cleaning big, busy spaces.
All prices were correct at the time of publication.
The Shark Stratos is the predecessor to the Shark POWERDETECT Upright, which is why it's now $200 less, while still boasting many of similar features that make the POWERDETECT Upright ideal for big homes, including a 1.48qt dust capacity, a 10.63-inch cleaning path width, and high suction power.
Read more in our full Shark Stratos Upright review.
Along with a 1qt dustbin and 12-inch cleaning path width, the Shark Vertex has a 'lift-away' pod that allows for more mobility when cleaning tricky areas such as the stairs.
Read more in our full Shark Vertex DuoClean PowerFins Upright review.
The Dyson Ball Animal 3 has a 1.8qt dustbin and a robust, 11-inch-wide floorhead which, when combined with its ultra-powerful suction, makes it another stand-out choice for cleaning large homes.
Read more in our full Dyson Ball Animal 3 review.
The Miele Guard L1 Cat & Dog is a bagged vacuum, so instead of emptying a dustbin, you dispose of the vacuum bag once full. Each bag holds 3.7qt, meaning you can vacuum your home multiple times before switching it out. It's also the most powerful vacuum we've vetted.
Read more in my five-star Miele Guard L1 Cat & Dog review.
The Miele Blizzard CX1 brings the benefits of canister vacuum cleaning, like increased mobility and versatility across different surfaces, but with a bagless dustbin, eliminating the need for replacement vacuum bags that incur monthly costs.
Read more in my full Miele Blizzard CX1 review.
The Dyson Gen5outsize is the larger version of the best-in-class Dyson Gen5detect, and one of the only cordless vacuums that is equipped for big homes, with an extra-large 2qt dustbin, and a second battery for up to 140 minutes of cleaning on one charge.
Read more in our full Dyson Gen5detect review.
Next, learn how often you should vacuum to maintain a calm home without overworking yourself, and see how the best robot vacuums we've tested can free up hours of chore time a week by cleaning your floors for you.
Love the latest product news and helpful shopping advice? Sign up for our newsletter and get the latest features delivered straight to your inbox.

Dan is the Home Tech Editor for Homes & Gardens, covering all things cleaning, sound, smart home, and air treatment across the Solved section.
Having worked for Future PLC since July 2023, Dan was previously the Features Editor for Top Ten Reviews and looked after the wide variety of home and outdoor content across the site, but their writing about homes, gardens, tech and products started back in 2021 on brands like BBC Science Focus, YourHomeStyle and Gardens Illustrated.
They have spent more than 400 hours testing and reviewing vacuums, soundbars and air purifiers for Homes & Gardens.
Dan has a BA in Philosophy and an MA in Magazine Journalism. Outside of work, you'll find them at gigs and art galleries, cycling somewhere scenic, or cooking up something good in the kitchen.