Cleaning up... the boy with a great love of vacuums
‘Obsessed’ eight-year-old has started business to fix and clean the machines - and now wants to be the next James Dyson
AN eight year-old schoolboy with an intense passion for vacuum cleaners says he dreams of becoming the next James Dyson after starting his own home business cleaning and fixing them.
Ollie Grundy has been fascinated with the household appliance since he was a toddler, when he started making cardboard models of them.
Over lockdown he persuaded his parents to allow him to start letting locals in Tameside drop theirs off at the family home for him to take apart, clean and put back together.
And has earned hundreds of pounds in a matter of days.
Kindhearted locals then started a crowd-funding campaign and raised enough to buy him his own top of the range model as a thank you.
He now says he wants to invent his own model from scratch when he’s older like the billionaire tycoon Dyson.
Ollie, from Hyde, who has recently been assessed for autism, has always been obsessed with vacuum cleaners since getting a toy one at 10 months old, his family say.
After moving into a bigger home over the summer, Ollie’s mum Emma, succumbed to his request to put a shout out on social media for anyone to drop off their vaccums.
For just £3 Ollie, who lives with mum Emma, 32, dad Stuart, 34, and sisters, Evie-Mai, 10, and Bonnie-Lou, two, takes it apart, cleans it and puts in an air freshener. He can also put new belts in them if needed.
And he has had so many requests Emma has had to start turning people away.
“He’s always had this fascination with them, as long as we can remember,” Emma said.
“Probably since he started walking about when he was about 10 months old and we bought him his first little plastic toy one from the shop.
“He’s not interested in things most eight year-olds are – TV, Playstations – he doesn’t do any of that. He’s not even interested in football.
“He just talks about hoovers constantly. It’s the first thing he asks you, ‘what hoover you have got?’
“He’s being assessed for autism at the moment, I think with autistic kids having some kind of fascination that they get, or an obsession, I think could be part of the reason.
“He just loves the way they are, mechanically what they do and the way they get built.
“He’s not so keen on the noise. But he loves to make them look new, he loves to take them apart and try and fix them. He just knows everything about them.”
Ollie told us: “I have liked them since I was one years old.
“I like how they work. I like to take them apart and see what’s inside and if I can fix them and make them look their very best.”
Asked how he was finding life as a businessman he said: “I have enjoyed it.”
Emma said: “It’s bizarre to some people, they laugh when you tell them and say ‘bloody hoovers?!’. “But I always say we shouldn’t laugh because if he ends up a millionaire you won’t be laughing then!”
And Flowery Field Primary school pupil Ollie has already turned his fascination into a thriving little business venture. “He kept mithering me to put something online,” said Emma. “It was all his idea.
“So I put a post on Facebook and it has just gone absolutely wild.” He made over £200 in a matter of days and now has over 100 customers.
“It’s been great for him and he’s absolutely loved it,” Emma added, he can’t wait to get home from school to start working on them. “The only issue has been where to put them all. But I’m just so grateful for everyone supporting him. “We’re dead proud of him and we just hope he goes really far and pushes his dream.”
He just talks about hoovers constantly. It’s the first thing he asks you ‘what hoover have you got?’
Ollie’s mum Emma