New Vaccuum

When we first moved into this place (or maybe it was before that), my parents bought us a vacuum cleaner. It was, we thought, a serviceable thing. It cleaned our carpets for several years until the hose wore out, and then we duct-taped it up again and we used it for another couple of years. But finally, it was time to replace it, so last week we went out and bought a new one. I was dreading it because vacuum cleaners have always seemed tremendously expensive to me. We went to Sears and bought a Eureka "ez kleen" in a metallic red finish. I mention that because that's about how much I know about vacuum cleaners. Like that old joke about asking someone what kind of car they have and the answer is "red".

Anyhow, the primary features of this new equipment are (a) it's red, (b) it's very small, (c) it was super cheap ($91, and apparently it's on sale for even less this week), and (d) it's bagless, with a transparent dirt-cup in the front where you can see the dust and dirt and gunk that you vacuum up whirling around like crazy.

That last feature totally rocks. It makes vacuuming feel like you've achieved something. More like mowing the lawn. Face it, unless you've spilled a bag of cheezies on the floor, vacuuming isn't particularly satisfying, because at the end of the day you don't really have much to show for it. But no longer. With this new vacuum, you can see exactly how much crap has been pulled off your floor and, let me tell you, that can be an absolutely amazing amount. Both Stella and I were stunned at how much dust this thing can pull out of our two little patches of carpeting in a single session. We've only had the thing for a week and I've already emptied and cleaned it out twice, with a significant amount of dirt both times.

I never thought I'd be impressed with a vacuum cleaner, especially a $100 one, but life is full of surprises.