For many, many years, I’d had a Kirby sweeper.  It was alright, although I have to admit I always felt silly knowing how much I paid for it.  But the salesman had come just as my son was starting to crawl and being the paranoid new mother that I was, the guy found me an easy mark.

As the years passed, and the kirby got older (and dirtier, as no matter what I did, I couldn’t bring back that new chrome shine), I fell a little out of love with it.

Every time I got frustrated trying to change the dang bag in it, I envied the newer, sleeker, bag-less sweepers that I was seeing advertised.  But instead, I stuck by the old kirby and kept replacing my bags, and the belt.

Then came the smell, a horrible reeking smell every time you ran the vacuum.  I kept changing bags, every time I ran it thinking it was what was stinking.  After a while, I realized it wasn’t the paper bags that you throw out, but the cloth bag that you see on the outside, so I removed it and washed it about twenty times in the washing machine.

The smell was still terrifyingly strong every time you vacuumed.  I gave up and dreaded vacuum days.

When we moved into the new house, I hated bringing the old, stinky vacuum in, but I never got around to buying another one either, so I had no choice.  I kept envying the newer models on TV, and even looked them up on the internet a few times, trying to make my choice.

But I know nothing about vacuums.  Where was the cute salesman now telling me how great his product is?

So I turned to good old mom, when asked what I wanted for Christmas, I told her a vacuum.  That way she picks out what she thinks will work best, and that’s fine with me.  She’s one of the fussiest housekeepers ever!

Now that I’ve had my new Bissell bag-less, chrome-less, shiny blue plastic sweeper a few months, I’m convinced that it picks up much better than the old kirby did.  I love not having bags to fuss with, but I hate to empty the dirt catcher.  That’s become my husband’s job, I simply leaving a gross looking sweeper sitting in the kitchen and the next morning it’s empty, rinsed out and the filter’s cleaned.

But, yes, there’s always a but:  I miss the old kirby because it had a “drive gear”, and pushed so easily it was like it was moving on its own and you were just guiding it.  This new sweeper does not have this wonderful feature.  It’s a workout in itself vacuuming the entire house.

No need for diet pills or expensive gym memberships, just vacuum the house a few extra times a week.