Vacuum Emergency

Over the past few months, I have gone through four vacuums. I had a Eureka World Vacuum that I loved and thought would last forever. We replaced one plug as the kids pulled it out by the cord but as we have a large house and had those pesky mites a few years ago, we needed a few vacuums. So, I bought a "bagless" vacuum which I thought would be great.

It gets to be such a mess with five girls and sometimes six in the house as hair gets caught up in the beater brush. We have such a hard time emptying the bag and when I went to buy a new filter, (I don't know what genius engineer thought to put the filter in the middle of the bagless container so it is filled with dirty hair all the time) they don't sell them anymore. Undoubtedly, that engineer was fired!

So, that Dirt Devil vacuum is not very usable without the gross filter. Then, I bought the Baggles Eureka. I have always enjoyed my Eureka vacuums more than any other I have tried. I have ended up having several for many years and gone through several other brands rather quickly. I had high hopes for the Eureka. I however, hated emptying the bagless thing and banging out the filter and washing the other filter and the hair also got caught around the beater brush edge and actually melted the plastic end that held it into place. Those parts used to be out of metal and wood but not anymore.

So, for Christmas, Santa brought a small Bissle vacuum. It didn't last a month before the hair got around the plastic edge and melted it in almost the exact place that the Eureka melted. It quickly took a trip back to the North Pole Walmart.

So, feeling like a Vacuum serial killer, I stalked the isles at Walmart looking for a new victim. I viewed many types and brands but most were bagless and as you can tell, pulling all that hair out of the container and dealing with the filters doesn't make this mom very happy. When I saw the prices of my newest batch of victims, I felt like they saw me coming and figured if they priced them high enough, I would run in fear....

Which I did!

So, for a few days, I nursed the Dirt Devil filter using a knife to scrape the encrusted gunk off the filter in the middle trying to get some use out of it. I also hoped I could look online for another Eureka plastic edge part. I was sad that I had already chopped up my other Eureka and taken its bones to the recycle bin so I couldn't give the bagless Eureka a plastic edge transplant.

I did what any mother who is low on funds and whose home is quickly becoming a ruin as the earth starts to grow up and bury the contents waiting for the next layer of earth. I prayed.

While I was out "shopping" with my daughter who was getting asked to prom, we were about to leave a second hand store when something told me to go back and look at the vacuum area and see if they had anything. I went back and they had an almost new Eureka bagged vacuum and there was nothing on the brush, no dirt anywhere, the label still on it and it was missing a belt. They had belts at the store, I bought one and put it on and started vacuuming the store! It didn't shoot any of the dirt out the back as so many other vacuums do! It was almost exactly like my beloved World Vac!

I almost cried when I found a penny just then. The new vacuum was $15 versus the almost $300 for the other vacuums I looked at. I came home, did some surgery on the bags I had for my other Eureka. By putting saran wrap over the hole and taping it down and cutting about 5 inches off the bag and taping it shut, I found that I could use the 50 bags I had left for my other Eureka and save myself the almost $6 a box for 3 bags that would fit the new vacuum.

The floor has never been happier. I admit, I did have to give the beater brush a good hair cut after we finished vacuuming the whole house as it had been so long since we had a good, functioning vacuum but it worked WONDERFULLY!!!!

I thanked my Heavenly Father for his "nudge" to go look at the vacuums at the second hand store before I left and for his little penny reminder to "trust Him." I stuck the penny into my jar that is just for such coins. (see "In God We Trust" post)

All in all, I have to say that Eureka makes the cut for having two out of three wonderful vacuums.