goodbye, vacuum

Due to a combination of frugality, minimalism, and just not caring, I buy little and covet even less. Not only do I own few things, when I do decide that I want something, it takes me about 18 months to get around to purchasing it. The last major purchase of any significance was probably the Jeep, in November 2006. Even though the car is not terribly sensible, I was self-aware enough to know that that sort of item-lust comes along rarely. I wanted it, so I bought it.

My futon was another thing I knew I really wanted, and that took me well over year to get around to purchasing. I recently purchased a new bathmat which filled me with shame because the bathmat I already owned was perfectly good, other than the fact that it filled me with loathing and rage.

When I moved into this apartment I got a lot of my things from Freecycle: a table, chairs, iron, vacuum. This vacuum had to be held together with a belt, but I have such little surface area in my apartment that a crummy old Hoover wasn’t the end of the world. As time went on I started to miss wearing the belt that was being used to hold the vacuum together. For some added excitement, the vacuum would occasionally set the smoke alarm off.

This past weekend I bought a cute little stickvac after months of deliberation. It’s a Dirt Devil so it will probably fall apart after a month or so. Today I put the decrepit vacuum out at the curb. I feel liberated.