Ode to Suction

I did it! I have a Dyson Vacuum...what a wonderful machine.

Despite it's cost, despite my initial skeptisism on yet another household item that claimed to change my life, I took the big leap of faith and bought one yesterday at Best Buy. It's the mid-range version, but still very powerful compared to conventional vacuum power that's out there right now. And mind you, I did not just go out and get one flippantly with one swift ponder of the machine. I'd been eyeing the Dyson since the first commercial lept out at me from my TV screen.

You see, for me, cleaning around the house is therapy and to have clumsily rummaged through the house with a vacuum that merely swooshed the dirt and cat litter behind itself and onto my feet was a horrible experience. On a good day, our old vacuum would suck up Nellie tumbleweed (balls of fur left on the carpet where ever Nellie had been situated for 2 minutes or longer). There were also days when I'd just pick up a bigger piece of debris myself and dump it in the trash. The filter in our old vacuum was hopelessly clogged, and no matter how often I would clean out the container, or how many hours I'd spend trying to unclog/flush out the filter, it was all to no avail. There was also the vacuum odor whenever I used it. I once thought about sprinkling lemon zest on the floor and running the vacuum over it to see if it might 'freshen' things up. I didn't of course for fear of compromising the rickety gadget even more.

I needed a better clean! I could not wait any longer.

We brought the Dyson home and Alex put it together. He had it assembled in two minutes (this in itself is amazing as we typically spend hours on anything that needs assembly of any kind with the usual sprinkling of curses every few minutes and the usual 'extra' screws, bolts and pieces).

We were amazed at how much sense the owners manual made (it may have been written at the 3rd grade level). We were amazed at how every thing we tried in the manual actually worked, and quite easily and effortlessly. We surmised immediately that a machine that is made correctly and well, is easy to operate and maintain. For instance, we couldn't figure out where the lever to release the vacuum from the upright position was located. We reference the owners manual. All you have to do is put your foot on the front part of the vacuum and it's magically released from its upright position.

Although Alex had vacuum earlier in the day, we decide to do a test run of our new machine. Even though I knew how badly our old vacuum worked, and anticipated to see debris the old machine left behind, we were still amazed at it's power! It was as if we'd never vacuum at all before the Dyson.

Unloading the dirt container was easy and amazing. It was amazing to actually feel the weight of the debris as it landed in the plastic bag I held underneath...another cool thing, the dirt container opening is at the bottom, so the debris just falls out when emptying. My hands need never touch the debris. It felt as though the machine pushed all the debris so tightly together that it formed a solid out of it.

I'm glad the only dilema we have now is what to do with the old vacuum.