The Vacuum Lives On…

In an effort to clean up all the Styrofoam peanuts littering our house, I pulled out my vacuum. In case you don’t know, I’ve been cursing this vacuum for months and complaining about it any chance I get. I couldn’t pick up a darn thing with it, and it somehow was putting down more dirt than it was picking up. I had had it with the vacuum when it couldn’t even pick up a piece of Styrofoam the size of a pea.

I was ready to walk the thing out to the trash when I suddenly had a flashback to visions of my parents sitting on the kitchen floor, huddled over the vacuum with a flashlight, utility knife and electrical tape in hand ready to perform some sort of surgery on our old Electrolux. I’m not sure of exactly what they did to the vacuum during those moments, but somehow it seemed to work magic and the vacuum lived to see another day (this went on for at least 20 years).

It was time for a vacuum operation of my own. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but something must wrong and I was about to haul it to the trash anyway, so I didn’t have anything to lose. I prepared my supplies—okay, I got out a flashlight. I looked down the hose and stretched it all out. I couldn’t see anything and considered cutting it in half just so I was sure I didn’t miss anything, but I decided not to get overeager. Plus I don’t think we have any electrical tape, so then I’d just be left with half a hose.

I continued checking it over, pulling off anything I could and inspecting it with the flashlight. ALAS!!! A clog somewhere in the back of the vacuum. I went to my silverware drawer to find something to help me fish out all the hair and dust and gunk inside a little hole. A seafood fork appeared to be my best option. I pulled it out of the drawer and dug away for about 15 minutes. Finally, finally, finally! All the buildup was removed and my vacuum works again. It works beautifully. I spent so much time today vacuuming with a real vacuum and not just the Dust buster, which sadly I used to prefer over my vacuum (clearly something is wrong when you’d rather vacuum 1,200 square feet with the Dust buster than your upright vacuum). I moved from room to room just looking for something else to vacuum. I even moved furniture! It was a glorious day.