The Vacuum Blew Up

How's that for a title. Yup, I'm talking BOOM!!!

My oldest son has the smallest room in our trailer. He's also a pack rat. He had stuff just everywhere! I told him that he had to have it picked up (to my standards) by today or I was helping. So at 1pm today I entered his room. Yikes!

I think we picked up about a gazillion little tiny bitty Legos. I have it on good authority he is getting more in the next few days - along with who knows what else in toys that need to fit in his space. He already had a small bookshelf, a dresser, a small desk & his twin size bed in this tiny space. He has a small walkway that goes in to his room & then around his dresser to his desk area. I finally realized that when I was telling him to clean his room he was just shoving it all behind the dresser & under the desk.

I went in to help him & we worked together figuring out what to keep & what to toss. Daddy is going to put some shelves up for him next week while he is home on vacation. That will help a bit as well. Eventually we are going to make him a loft bed to open up more floor space. After three hours I was beat. I was tired of Legos. I was tired of broken toys. I was just tired of staring at the floor looking for more Legos!

The last step was to vacuum his nicely found floor to make it look clean. His bed was covered with everything that had to go back on the floor some place. I plugged in the vacuum, I put in the attachments so I could pick up the cobwebs in the corners, & I turned it on. I vacuumed for about 30 seconds before BOOM! Plastic pieces were everywhere. The only thing hurt was the vac.

I knew I needed a new one. This one is about 12 years old. My sister bought it that long ago, used it, told me the attachments didn't work, & gave it to me when my last vac died. I've been using it for about six years & the attachments worked fine. I think she just wanted a new one. :-) About three months ago something occurred & the noise on it tripled but it was still working.

I had a Kirby vacuum rep come in about three weeks ago & do a demo for me. I SO wanted to buy that vacuum!!!! It made mine look so pathetic. It came with all kinds of attachments including a shampoo attachment and attachments I didn't even realize were necessary for a vacuum. However, the price tag was a bit too much right before Christmas. If I bought it then & there - which of course was the whole purpose of this girl driving all the way to my house (at least 2 hours from where she lived!) to do the demo. It was $1,000. Yes, that is three zeros! Yikes! For a vacuum!!! I could even make payments - for three YEARS! No thanks! But I really wanted that vacuum....

Then I remembered my favorite haunt on the 'Net - eBay! :-) Yup, there are plenty of them on there for a fraction of the cost - the newer ones go for $200-$300. Still pricey for a vacuum IMHO, but if it works as good as those who love it say, then that works for me! However, in two days it is Christmas. I think for the time being I'll buy a $20 one at Wal-Mart & call it good. It HAS to be better than hauling my MIL's over from next door - in the trunk of the car - in order to keep clean carpets. She has a Rainbow vacuum - another heavy vacuum. And I really, really, really hate emptying the water in that thing!

So - that is how I spent my day.....watching my vacuum blow up.