Valentine vacuum

I bought a new vacuum cleaner this week, it's my Valentine's Day present to myself. This may be the first time in my 44 years I have made such a purchase. It's a Shark Cordless Pet Plus, with "Powerfins" and a few attachments, plus a canister that can be detached for use as a hand vac, and also to empty directly into the trash can. I did zero research for this purchase. Simply put, the task of housecleaning has fallen to me (no more paying someone else to do it, for a while) and one use of my husband's ancient, enormous Regina vacuum cleaner, tripping over the cord, lugging it up and down the stairs, and having no handy attachments to make the job any easier made me realize we need a much better tool for this job. Off to Costco I went, and the Shark seemed the best available option, with the added bonus that it was on sale. 

Yesterday I unpacked it, charged it and took it for its inaugural run. The sheer volume of dust and hair collected made it apparent that our house has never been vacuumed. Either that, or we just track in that much dirt and the dobers shed that much hair in a month (I think that's the last time anyone was here to clean the house). I had to empty the canister three times, and each time I popped the bottom to allow the contents to drop into the trash can, I marveled at how much fur, dander and dirt fell out. I'm pretty sure that 22-year-old Liz would be mortified at the amount of joy this brought 44-year-old Liz. 

I can't say I'll fall in love with vacuuming, but the results are now definitely worth the effort. Our carpets look great. The wood floors are dust-free. The area rugs in the kitchen and bathroom look spiffy, and the headboards and couches look good, too. I ran that thing out of all 40 minutes of battery yesterday, and I'll probably go over some of the furniture again today. I now understand why Mr. Blueberry Pancake's uncle vacuums every day after dinner. It's a lot easier to do when you have a good tool at your fingertips, and it's a lot more gratifying than this accidental housewife expected it to be. I love me enough to buy me some time to paint my nails, or read a book, or write things like this - the new Shark allows that, so, happy Valentine's Day to ME.