Sucking: More, or Less

I've had the same vaccuum cleaner since I started college. After some quick math with my mom tonight, we calculated that my vac is more than 10 years old.

It's just your basic vac with some attachments. Nothing fancy. Nothing expensive. But too its credit, it has sucked well for a very long time.

A month or so ago I was cleaning and I noticed that the vac (I'm abbreviating because I can't spell vaccccuuummmm) smelled like the motor was burning up. I looked at it. I changed the bag. I was pretty sure this fixed it. But mostly I was just putting off buying a new vac because I hate having to spend money on things like vacs.

Anyway, fast forward to yesterday and I was cleaning again. It's been a cleaning extravaganza weekend. Something about cleaning is quite calming and therapeutic for me. I even cleaned my car, top to bottom, inside and out.

Anyway (again), I ran the vac yesterday. But remembering that the vac started sucking the last time I used it (and not in the good way) I was not satisfied that my floors were as clean as I really wanted them to be.

So, today I bought a new vac at Target. It's a lovely shade of blue, with a headlight and a HEPA filter, to boot. On sale, not fancy, but much better than the college vac I've been pushing around for more than 10 years.

I decided to try it out right after I got it home this afternoon. It's the bagless kind, which means I can see everything it's sucking out of the carpet. And HOLY COW. The old college vac must have stopped sucking (in the good way) a LONG time ago, because even after using the vac yesterday, the new fancy vac sucked up A LOT of crap today.

I vaccuummmmmmed the whole house again. It was AWESOME. I am now quite confident that my floors are clean.

So, I'm retiring the vac that sucked less, replacing it with a vac that sucks much, much more.

I'm also keeping all of the attachments from the old vac, which when combined with the attachments on the new vac, could quite possibly be long enough to allow me to vac the inside of my car parked in the garage while I recline in the comfort of my bed, inside the house.

And that, my friends, does not suck at all.

C.T.