It Sucks - Finally!

The very old beast

When John and I got married 12 years ago, we needed a vacuum. My parents had recently purchased a new vacuum to replace the old Kirby they bought when they first got married, so they told me I was welcome to their old one. I was thrilled because a) it worked b) it came with cool attachments and c) we didn't have any other options.

We loaded it up in our car with the rest of my junk from Seattle and headed down to Utah after the wedding - with a lovely detour down the Oregon Coast for our honeymoon. The vacuum has been at my side every Saturday on cleaning day and has endured the messes of three little girls. We have taken it in for repair work, continued buying the antique bags and replaced many, many rubber thingies around the front circle do-dad. (I'm sure there's a nice technical term for this, but as I don't speak vacuumeeze, well...this is what you get)

As you have seen in some of my earlier posts, we are doing some major remodeling in our master bedroom and bathroom. This of course consists of mucho demolition pieces strewn about the room and massive amounts of sanding dust coating the carpet. The first few days we pulled out our tried and true 35-year-old Kirby, which meant running over every portion of the carpet about 4 or 5 times to get up every white speck. John gave up and hauled his shop vac from the garage into the room and excitedly showed me how he could get everything cleaned up in one swipe!

We both agreed it was time for a new vacuum. Of course, I worried about how my parents would react since they had entrusted us with their beloved vacuum. I needn't have worried as my dad's first reaction was, "It's about time!"

You'd be impressed with us - rather than researching every possible vacuum out there, checking numerous consumer reports for weeks and weeks to make sure we made the best possible decision, we happened to walk past a row of Dyson's for a good price at Sam's Club, took one glance at each other, and plopped the thing into our cart next to the bread and milk without a second thought. We got home, John set it up, and I promptly put it away without even trying it. Buying a vacuum is not really a fun purchasing item for me, and I figured it had to be better than our old one, so I wasn't even curious how well it worked.

Well, Saturday cleaning day arrived, and I pulled the new beast out, started vacuuming and about hit the floor at my shock of how well it vacuumed and how clean my floor looked. I hadn't seen my carpet look so clean since the carpet cleaner came. John wasn't home, so I wasn't able to share my excitement, but when he came home and took one look at the carpet, he was doubled over in shock as well! Finally - we have a vacuum that actually sucks!!