A man has no excuse for not keeping his flat clean - after amassing one of Britain's biggest collections of vacuum cleaners.
Dedicated Steve Cook, 38, has been collecting vintage vacuum cleaners since he was three-years-old.
and estimates he has spent around £10,000 on the haul which adds up to 300 machines.
But now he has run out of places to store them all in his tiny one-bed flat.
However, the hoarder, who claims to have the third largest collection in the UK, insists the lack of space won't prevent him from buying more.
He was given his first device - a
Hoover Constellation - by his late father Roy Cook who at the time was a caretaker at a local school and brought it home to repair.
He soon became obsessed with the household appliance and at the age of 12 struck up a friendship with the owner of a repair shop in Cornwall.
Steve spent his Saturday afternoons collecting and repairing old cleaners in the shop, which he remembers calling his "mecca".
He has spent three decades collecting vintage or rare vacuums from across the country and says 95 percent of his haul are in working condition.
Out of his 300-strong hoard his favourite is a Hoover Concept One, the rarest is a Hoover Power Drive 1978 and the most valuable is a 1975 Lavender Hoover Freedom.
He is also the proud owner of an "incredibly rare" Moulinex Major which he purchased for £2 from a carboot sale in Peterborough and a 1923 Hoover 541.
But he says the holy grail of all of them is a
Hoover Turbomaster Commercial.
Senior business analyst Steve squeezes 40 machines into his one-bedroom flat, stores around 100 in a garage near his house and also rents out a storage unit in Wales where he keeps the rest.
Over the years, Steve has scoured car boot sales, second hand shops, skips and Ebay for unusual models to add to his arsenal which includes brands Dyson, Vax, Hoover AEG and Siemens.
Steve, who lives in Tavistock Road said: "Ebay is a great place to find the old classic machines, some go for quite a lot of money. I'm not the only collector out there.
"I have probably got the third largest haul in the UK, there are people who have more than me. I have probably spent £10,000 in total over the years."
"I have to stop myself from buying more sometimes because I have to think about how I am going to live for the rest of the month.
"I used to get some really great finds at carboot sales. I bought a Moulinex Major which is incredibly rare at a sale in Peterborough for £2.
"I almost bit the man's arm off. I threw the money at him and ran off with the cleaner."
Steve says he was the kind of child who liked "taking things apart."
"Because I showed such an interest, whenever we went to anyone's house the first thing I would ask was 'can I see your hoover please?'.
" My entire childhood is tracked back through all of these vacuum cleaners that my relations or friends of the family had.
"I can recall every single one of them, it's absolutely bizarre.
"I can remember the people but not their faces. But I can recall clear as day what vacuum they had - it's mad."
Steve vacuums his flat twice a week - chopping and changing models. He last hoovered on Sunday, using a Hoover Breeze 1992.
Source: The Crewe & Nantwich Guardian
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