We have carpeting, hard floors, and an area rug. This little machine was pretty awesome to clean all of those surfaces without having to switch cleaning tools. There is a setting for hard floors that works great! The carpet setting isn't bad, but if you've got a large mess (I had bedding material from cleaning out our hamster cages everywhere.), you will need to go over it a few times to get it all cleaned up. And being able to take the little handheld part off and clean up little areas was great!