Actually, we as a planet do live in a vacuum. It was a trendy expression some years ago. Usually used by micromanagers at work.
While thinking about what necessary tasks to put off and plan something fun for the remaining daylight hours, I ended up washing dishes and vacuuming the carpet. Being the CHRISTMAS season, (happy birthday Lord) being kicked off by a holiday, a lot of consuming is being done. Potential members of the Polar Bear Club were waiting in line for predawn openings. These places would be a great place for psychology majors to gather material for their thesis.
Up there with waffle irons for a last minute present are vacuum cleaners. I bring this topic up because yesterday I was cursing a bagless vacuum and today I was thinking how great this one was. I've seen a whole lot of vacuums in my time. An uncle was a vacuum cleaner salesman way back when few people had a televison. Consequently we had several in the house. Most were in the basement and the Kirby was the one that mom regularly used. I remember that was kind of a bagless vacuum. We put it over some Milwaukee Sentinel newspaper or a torn open Kohl's grocery bag, flipped a lever and a cover would swing out and all the dirt and dust would fall onto the paper, and a good amount back into the air. I guess Kirby's are pretty much the same now. Mom's was still in use for over fifty years. If a Kirby salesperson comes a knocking on your door, take that for what it's worth.
Most vacuum cleaner companies make their money on replacment bags. Pat and I have had seven vacuum cleaners in the last thirty five years and bought a lot of bags. Kanook is our second Siberian Husky. That's been nineteen years of having a Husky out of thirty five years of marriage. Graph that out and those nineteen years with a husky will show a spike in the purchases of vacuum bags. That is until a couple years ago.
Our second to last vacuum was a popular brand with all sorts of goodies including self-propulsion. One problem with a dog that spends a lot of time outdoors and in the Kettle Moraine with me is they pick up some nasty odors from time to time. Kanook had frequent shampoos after some excursions, but even at that, the vacuum bags would frequently expel malodorous volumes of air if not changed with each vacuuming. One such day, I decided that this was enough. I went shopping for a bagless vacuum cleaner and wanted the best! I'll not say the brand, but suffice it to say, I bought it where nearly all of our previous vacuums were purchased. The exception was a Grant's. Remember those department stores? A new English brand was being marketed and it was pricey, but factoring all the bags that I would not be buying, would probably be no more expensive than the so called bagless brand that I was cussing at yesterday!
Again, I'll not mention the brand but it does imply that someone there sold their soul to satan. This particular one was the second so-called bagless at the store. The first was a glorified "shop vac". If you have one of these, they don't use a bag but have a big canister filter that catches the dirt from flying out. It has to be removed and shaken clean from time to time and holds odors. No thanks. The next one did not have a canister filter but had a cup that could be removed and emptied. The marketing made it sound great. Once purchased, it was found that it had no less than four filters within it! Each had to be either tapped clean or washed and dried to re-establish workable vacuum. The cup just caught the big stuff that fell down from a foam filter. So in reality these bagless vacuum cleaners are often no better than shaking out a bag and reusing it.
Even the pricy bagless that I purchased for home has a filter in it. It is recommended to be washed every six months. I bought a spare. After a few months, I removed it and was puzzled. It looked clean. Not much rinsed out of it. That patented bagless design really worked well!
If after all these clues, you really must know what brand I'm talking about, leave me an email. When I really like a product, I feel an unsolicited testamonial is in order from time to time. I just thought that I'd help you out if you are going to give a vacuum cleaner for a gift. Waffle irons, I have no recommendations.
