“Mom, this vacuum cleaner sucks!” was my kids favorite saying to get out of the cleaning their rooms.  It became comic relief at our house.  I mean isn’t that what a vacuum cleaner is supposed to do?  Well, mine quit doing that today.

I re-carpeted the house a few months ago and had aspirations of keeping it clean.  So, when the new carpet went down I bought extra filters for the central heat and air system and the vacuum cleaner as well as stocking up on new vacuum cleaner bags.  I was ready.  My little medium sized short-haired dog does more than her share of sheading.

Then yesterday my husband used the vacuum cleaner on his truck and brought it inside griping about it not sucking (tee hee).  When I opened the door to change the bag I found the reason why.  The bag had come loose and all that dirt and dog hair had filled up the cavity that the bag was supposed to protect.  Ick!  Maybe I should check the bag more often.  I had to take it outside to clean it and replace the bag.  I turned it upside down and shook it as well as I could.  Since it is an upright and heavy that wasn’t very well.  Remember Jaws from the movie “Mr. Mom?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTwqmj1551E  I even took the filter out and banged it upside down on the concrete to get rid of the excess dirt. (I mean why buy a new one until you have to?)

Back inside I began to vacuum the floor. That lasted about 15 minutes before the poor machine shut itself off. Hmmm.  Maybe I put the filter in upside down.  I mean what did those arrows pointing to “air flow” really mean anyway?  Air flowing out or air flowing in?    I tried the restart button but nothing happened.  It was obvious it was time to find the instruction book.

Hours later after locating the book, I found the area about cleaning the motor filter.  There’s another filter?  Where?  According to the pictures, inside the cavity that holds the bag.  Uh oh.  Back outside and opening the door for the bag housing I finally found the second filter door.  What was behind Door Number Two?  Oh ick!  Poor motor – it was suffocated with dog hair and dirt because of the first bag debacle.   I cleaned it as best I could, again turning it upside down and shaking the giant, heavy machine to the best of my ability.  That was when it occurred to me, what I needed was a vacuum cleaner; another one to clean the first one.  There was no way I could completely clean the filter and its little door without a vacuum cleaner and I didn’t have one.  So, since I couldn’t suck, I blew – dirt in my face, my eyes, my hair and some out into the yard.

When I put it all back together a miracle happened.  The machine ran!  The vacuum cleaner sucked! The poor thing lives.  It should be happy it is in a house with no children and only one small dog. I can’t believe how great my new carpet looks now.