my vacuum is my favorite appliance. some people meditate or exercise or journal or juice fast to restore themselves and i try to do those things too (except the juice fasting, i would never do that voluntarily, only when i am ordered to for a colonoscopy and i have to say i found the juice fasting MUCH worse than any other aspect of the colonoscopy, so that’s pretty big) but what really calms me down is the crickle crackle sound of unwanted mess or dirt or crumbs being sucked off my floors. i feel this peace spreading through me as i methodically circle my dining table and work my way in neat lanes around my house. 

i love to throw a dinner party (although my range of meals is pretty limited - roast chicken or meatloaf or baked ziti, depending on the season and the crowd, so if you’ve come to mine you have already had one or all of these dinners) but i also love the clean up after everyone has left. i love organizing the dishwasher (another dear appliance.) i have a pretty specific way of loading it that my mother finds compulsive, but i think is just efficient. and i love squirting the counters with cleanser and swiping the crumbs onto the floor in preparation for the grand event: the vacuuming. only when my house looks like no one has been there do i feel ready to go to bed. and then i sleep like a peaceful baby, unless i have had more than two glasses of wine, in which case i wake up at three in the morning and ruminate.

when we moved to boulder from amsterdam, we had to wait several weeks for our things to arrive both from the netherlands and from the storage facility in san francisco where we left the items that we either didn’t think we’d need or didn’t work abroad. we were without a vacuum. obviously, this situation was intolerable for me. my children were four and baby at the time and i was vacuuming after most meals. my miele, canister vacuum was the one thing in my life keeping me sane. my first husband took advantage of the labor day sales a week or so after we arrived in the states and bought an upright dyson. while i was grateful that he tried, the upright couldn’t get under a lot of things: the range, the sofa, the credenzas, the bed. i like the telescoping pole that you can also remove the head from so you can get to all the weird corners and baseboards. i managed with the dyson until my beloved miele arrived. never was there such a happy reunion. i hadn’t seen him in nearly six years (the voltage is different in europe) and i had had to purchase a new one for our amsterdam apartment… also a miele, but red, since the dutch shop was out of white, my preferred color. 

when we got divorced and had to divvy up our belongings i was most concerned about my vacuum. THANKFULLY, first husband was not at all attached to the miele (and was actually still extolling the virtues of the dyson who had spent many years abandoned in the closet.) i just knew that if i had my vacuum i could get through anything. and i did.

my vacuum is now eighteen years old (he DID have nearly a six year break while we were abroad) and he is still a champion. our favorite day is when we take down the christmas tree and all the pine needles fall off. this is the BEST day of the year for vacuuming… those dry needles sound like MONEY as they clickety clack up the pole… so calming. so HAPPY NEW YEAR all… don’t worry about making inspiring resolutions or getting a new gym membership or doing the whole thirty or having a dry january… just get a vacuum.

to read more about my cleaning habits click here or here or here