I’m at war with my vacuum cleaner.
These newfangled contraptions and their promises to get dander and dirt out of the grimy little crevices between my rug threads – they’re liars! Liars, hounds and thieves! It always starts out so nicely – so hopeful. I get a shiny new vacuum that has enough suction to suck my skin right off the bone and then one day while I’m vacuuming I realize I’m not really vacuuming at all. I’m just pushing dirt around on my floor and when I lift up the vacuum it’s all right there, staring at me.
I have serious dust bunnies. They have beady little demon eyes and they roll around in cat dander and fur. And when I lift up the vacuum to find them all still there, just rolling around in their own filth, I get very, very angry. I don’t like to be mocked.
Yesterday I genuinely considered throwing my vacuum out the window.
I always complain to Dave that the vacuum doesn’t work. He does something magical to fix it, I use it, it works, it breaks, and I complain again. It’s a vicious, brain rotting cycle.
Yesterday when I started up ol’ Bess, I got very excited for the potential of a freshly cleaned carpet. I was going to have beautiful little zigzag lines in the rug and all the little tidbits would be eradicated from every crevice. But when I started her up, she huffed and puffed and didn’t do a darn thing. I told Dave she was broken again and he told me to check the hose.
My vacuum has this hose that goes all the way from the very bottom of it up to the top, wraps around, and then goes back down and slightly curves up once more to lead in to the chamber where all the dust bunnies make dirty love together. And luckily for me, it was completely clogged with junk.
Now, I’m no vacuum engineer, but it appears to my commonplace brain that this is not the most efficient design possible.
So one trash can, long straightened wire hanger, and twenty minutes later, I puff up my chest in the living room, proud that I have singlehandedly conquered the vacuum and declared my dominance over it.
Until I plugged her in, started her up, picked her up, and saw all those beady little bunny eyes – mocking me.
(Insert vacuum-out-window dream sequence)
So I’ve had it. I’m done. No more newfangled vacuums. You know what? My parents had a junky old vacuum that was loud and weighed a thousand pounds and was ugly as sin but it rocked so hard sometimes the house didn’t even accumulate debris out of fear. I think this weekend I’ll go hunting for the biggest, clunkiest piece of junk I can find, bring it home, and shower it in glory as it sucks up every bit of grossness that has now been fermenting in the threads beneath my feet.
I might even get one with a bag. A BAG! Doesn’t that sound ridiculous?
But listen – bags get full. Because bags work.
Maybe once my floor is clean, I’ll put on Chariots of Fire theme song and live out that chuck-out-the-window dream.♣














