A Tale of Two Vacuums

So, part of the reason that we slaved away and stressed out packing and moving ourselves was to net a nice little chunk of money as reimbursement for our troubles. And with that, invest in a few new/replacement things around the house to a) fill our much bigger home and b) improve on some of the things that have been on the "it would be nice to have a new..." list for awhile.

However, one thing that was not on the replacement list was our vacuum. I bought that Bissell (above, on the left) just before we got married, from Walmart, for about $60. It has served us very well and has caused me no problems. Then the other day I started to notice that it was shooting quite a bit of dust and bits out the back.. hmm... then on the stairs it completely spewed all sorts of crud and totally lost all suction. My first thought was "well, that's that". I briefly thought about replacing the bag, but the indicator was still "good" and I had replaced it fairly recently. And again, since we've been on a bit of a spree of freshening things up while we have a few extra funds, I didn't think too much more about it, just that it had lived a good long vacuum life and was probably done for.

Commenced researching online and polling facebook friends, and yesterday took the kids to Target for a little hands on investigation. Came home with a Hoover and tried it out later that day. LOVE it! And love that it cost about 1/4 the cost of the highly regarded Dyson, which I did consider.

It was as I was marveling at the amount of fuzz pulled off the new living room carpet that I started thinking about the old vacuum.... and the two or three times it has already vacuumed that same new rug... and oh, dear, the poor thing was probably clogged with carpet fuzz!

So I sheepishly revisit my poor Bissell and discover that yes, the bag is stuffed and backed up all the way out the hose. Oops. New bag, defuzzed, and eureka! good as new. So.... I have two vacuums. This morning just for fun I vacuumed the whole upstairs (all carpet) with the old one and then with the new one, to see in that fancy clear canister how much better a job it would do. And yes, it did pick up plenty of cat hair that the other did not.

I'm still glad I got a new vacuum. Both Don and I tend toward the allergic side, and with three fuzzy felines I think I've been overdue for a vacuum more suited to removing cat hair and filtering out rather than blowing out small particles. The question remains, do I hold onto the old one in a Vacuum Emeritus status, or should I give it away? Hmm. To be determined.

Oh, Humprey wanted to say hi!