Thread Number: 40137  /  Tag: 80s/90s Vacuum Cleaners
I actually let a vacuum go 		[Down to Last]

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Post# 426160   5/28/2020 at 10:05 (1,428 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)        

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Some of you may remember how upset I was last fall when a former girlfriend of mine left one of my vacuums, a Kirby Heritage, behind when she moved out of her apartment. So interestingly, today I gave my Hoover Quik Broom Supreme to a friend to whom I'd loaned it several months ago. Oddly enough, I feel good about doing that. I don't feel like I've lost a vacuum; I feel like I've sent that particular machine, which I wasn't using, to a place where it was needed and is doing more good now than it was hanging on a hook in my laundry room, collecting cat litter dust. It's not always easy for me to let stuff go but in this case, it felt very natural. Maybe that's growth. I certainly hope so.

The ironic thing is earlier this spring, I rescued an Electrolux Diplomat LX one of her neighbors had left beside the dumpster at her apartment complex. Funny how the universe has a way of creating balance.

Post# 426180 , Reply# 1   5/28/2020 at 20:03 (1,428 days old) by Jo (Dallas,TX)        
I too have had a similar experience

 Yes,, I find the older I get the easier it is to part with some of these things. With eBay too, I know I can always find and rebuy one if I truly regret giving one away.

I’ve gone through phases in my vacuum hobby...sometimes not even focusing on it for years then suddenly I knee deep in it. I have recently become revitalized because last year I came across two very nice machines I couldn’t resist buying at thrift store prices and that combined with covid jump started my hobby again. Also, finding something of interest on the trash often jump starts the hobby and last month so many people had vacuums out for bulk trash collection. I picked up 3 of them and have kept 2 which need parts under $20 each and seem to be pretty good machines though I’ll likely find new homes for both of them with relatives or friends.

And there’s a point too at which I can just save gobs of my favorites, they need to be give. To people to be used by those who will really enjoy them. My Brother likes Electrolux like me, so I gave him one of the two of my best finds for Christmas last year. He really needed a new one badly. And as much as I have days where I’d like to see that machine in my closet ready to be used someday by me and cared for as I wish rather than with my Brother, I know that I really don’t need the machine and it’s gone to a good home where it will be used and I can visit it and service it for him if needed.

I often have the feeling when I give a machine away that this is the end but inevitably I come across another or one like it again in the future, perhaps even better. We never know what the future beholds!

Jon



Post# 426181 , Reply# 2   5/28/2020 at 20:15 (1,428 days old) by texaskirbyguy (Plano, TX)        

I know exactly how you feel.
It is much easier to let something go voluntarily in hopes or knowing it helps someone or gives them pleasure.

A good comparison is when my mom traded in her old Oldsmobile 15+ years ago that I really liked and learned to drive in. I was never able to locate it again and still am bothered my that - it was a creampuff.
When I got my new truck almost 3 years ago I sold my 97 Cad at a good price to a retired policeman, as he liked old luxury cars. I felt good about that one despite all the memories made in that car all those years.

I have the quirkiness of getting attached to stuff.
I have lately let a LOT of stuff go that I had sentimental attachment to, but no longer have any use for it.
Yes, all those Kirby parts were some. As well as 80lbs of old Christmas lights. Vintage A/V equipment. Old Lawn equipment. Many other collectables and antiques and oddities.
I have to move in 3 years and cannot take it all, as if I did, what would I do with it all?
If someone wants it, I say let it go if I will not use it later...



Post# 426183 , Reply# 3   5/28/2020 at 20:19 (1,428 days old) by texaskirbyguy (Plano, TX)        

Oh, and yes - almost every time I let something go, something 'new' takes its place! I then try to decide quick whether to pass it on or if I really will use it.
I felt good passing on that old trash-picked Rainbow and Kenmore machine, and a bunch of Kirby stuff, even though I made nothing on them. Hard to find good old stuff anymore...

Post# 426185 , Reply# 4   5/28/2020 at 20:24 (1,428 days old) by JustinAjax (Georgia)        

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I'm guilty of anthropomorphizing objects that I've given away or sold. I know people do it with their pets which maybe makes a little bit more sense? But I've felt guilty when I've given away furniture to someone that I just KNEW wasn't going to really take care of it. I could just see my sofa or chair being sad in their house! 
Post# 426189 , Reply# 5   5/28/2020 at 21:22 (1,428 days old) by gregvacs28 (U.S.)        

I think we know on some level, that we have too much stuff, but we don't want to admit it.

 

Then when we do let things go we expect it will be regrettable and a betrayal to our stated interests, but it turns out to feel weirdly good..... and it gets easier in the future to let other things go when appropriate.
Post# 426191 , Reply# 6   5/28/2020 at 21:50 (1,428 days old) by kirbyklekter (Concord,Ca.)        
I have given things away

 to friends, family and neighbors, people that I see on a regular basis. What I've learned about that is, if what your giving away or selling is something you are/were sentimental about, think twice. If it's something they would never feel the same about, if it's "just an appliance" or whatever to them, maybe they see it as temporary until they get what they really want. Often times you will see said item at their house over time when you visit, and it may look quite run down and nothing like it was when you gave it to them. I wouldn't expect that to happen with something really nice, and everybody is different.I gave my friend's son and his girlfriend a real nice coffee table I had in storage. They were setting up house for the first time and I was happy to bring what I could to help. They really liked the coffee table and she said she would dust it every day. So a few months pass and they invite me over for dinner. When I walked in I could see a new and different coffee table in the living room. "Very nice" I said. She said that her mom bought it for them, and they were still using the table I gave them, and said it was now in the guest room. At some point that evening I walked past the guest room to put a box in the garage, and there in said room was the coffee table I gave them.....with a 20gal. fish tank bubbling and humming away. When they moved to a bigger home about a year later I found the table in a trash heap waiting for pick up. The table was wrecked beyond repair from the fish tank leaking. Things like this have happened before so I'm more careful who I give what to, especially if it's something that I'll be seeing again from time to time.

Post# 426197 , Reply# 7   5/28/2020 at 22:31 (1,428 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)        

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I had that experience a few years ago when I bought a new car and sold the old one to my best friend. I knew damn well he didn't maintain his cars but it was a quick and easy sale. The flip side of the coin was I had to see that car deteriorate for the next five or six years and had to constantly fight the urge to bust on him about not taking care of this car that used to be mine and I would just shake my head when he'd complain about the latest thing that had gone wrong with it. It was actually a relief when he finally donated it to charity.

Post# 426198 , Reply# 8   5/28/2020 at 22:37 (1,428 days old) by gottahaveahoove (Pittston, Pennsylvania, 18640)        
I've given things, lamps, furniture, etc

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to people. I've then seen these things in their "new home", NEVER treated the same way. I know how careful I was with them. But, when you give something, you give it.I even gave a Kirby vacuum. I KNOW hare expensive. One is now, never being used, and is out on a closed in porch. She has NO IDEA how to use it.

Post# 426202 , Reply# 9   5/29/2020 at 00:46 (1,428 days old) by MadMan (Chicago, IL, USA)        

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"Funny how the universe has a way of creating balance."

/nods sagely

I mean, it should feel good giving something... because you gave it. As opposed to unfairly losing something.

Post# 426210 , Reply# 10   5/29/2020 at 07:52 (1,427 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA)        

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I call that the universe self leveling!Recently I gave a very loved Old K5 mixer to my landlady's son and his new wife. He is attached to old stuff like me, we just get each other. I had not used it in forever and had too many mixers, a good match! His mom sent me pics of it on their new kitchen counter in their vintage home they purchased, next to the new red one they received for a wedding gift. He prefers the old one. I thought great! Then 2 days later the kids brought over a new Ice Blue tilt head model, I would love the color! I do, but crowded garage space again! I gave the old almost Mixmaster away to a dear friend who married, lets see what happens now!!

Post# 426214 , Reply# 11   5/29/2020 at 09:40 (1,427 days old) by Jo (Dallas,TX)        
Yes it’s happenned to me

 My Godmother who I was extremely close to passed away, she always took beautiful care of her cars, my Father and his Brother decided they would sell her car to my cousin. I knew the car wouldn’t last as that family never had cars very long repeatedly, but her current one seemed to be ok so I didn’t think much of it. 3 years later I was attending a family event at the house. The car was a 77 Chevy Malibu Classic sedan. As I was walking down the street I saw a similar make and model car but it was beat to hell, filthy and had huge rust holes all over just below the back window between it and the trunk lid. 3 of 4 hubcaps were gone, a huge bash in the rear quarter panel, Chevy Blazer rims and tires on the back wheels that were oversized for the car and painted silver from a spray can. the front headlight cluster was crooked and hanging off from another accident and the front fender wrinkled. I was so sure this was not the car that I walked out into the street to the drivers side to see if it had the two small dents my Aunt had put in it in the door when my other cousin accidentally directed her into a tree while parking at his house. She was livid about it but it didn’t look bad and had no scratches so she never had them fixed. Anyway, sure enough, those dents were there so this heap was indeed her car, the inside was a mess and I was so disgusted I just walked away and her partner, who was with me...when I said OH my God, look at what she did to her car, she said “I know, I can’t even look anymore, Ag (Agnes was my Aunt's name) took such good care of it.” as she had been over to the house and seen the car on a few other occasions before me. That was one of my earlier experiences with something like this.

Now on the one hand, the car did have some rust spots starting but my Aunt had them sanded and touched up at 5 years old but they came back, the car was a 77 so by the time I saw it in such a mess it was now 10 years old. Consequently I came to realize that this particular series of GM cars, it was a 77 Malibu Classic...was prone to rusting out especially in northern climates with salt used in the winters and it spent its first two years in St. Louis and then 4 years in NJ never garaged as my Aunt did not have a garage, and then the remaining years on Staten Island, NY. Almost always parked on a street. The first owner drove it 40k miles in the first two years and my Aunt drove it 50k miles in the 5 years she had it. So perhaps, yes, the car deteriorated on its own some and was heavily used, but there was also a lack to maintain and care for the car, I never asked where the new damage came from, perhaps they weren’t the fault of my cousin, but from the missing hubcaps, wrong wheels, pretty dirty condition, it was apparent she wasn’t making much effort to keep the car nice.

I find it better to give something away or sell something to somewhere where I will never see it again if it’s going to bother me that much to see it dilapidated from poor care or lack of maintenance.

So while my Brother may not take the TLC care of the Aerus Lux Classic I gave him, it wasn’t new to begin with when I got it and I do know his habits, he uses stuff at a moderate rate, but doesn’t abuse either so it will likely get some wear and tear and I went in expecting this.

Jon

Post# 426216 , Reply# 12   5/29/2020 at 10:34 (1,427 days old) by JustinAjax (Georgia)        

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The other side of the coin to all of this - I take great satisfaction in rescuing things from bad situations like they're an abused child. smile So many times I'll see things on eBay or Craigslist and when you look at the background in the picture it blows my mind that people would post pictures of such a filthy house or garage or whatever. Nevermind the terrible condition of the thing actually being sold.  So by buying it, cleaning it, restoring it...I feel like I'm doing a good thing. Of course, it hangs out in my garage until I get it clean enough to set foot in the house. 
Post# 426237 , Reply# 13   5/29/2020 at 21:37 (1,427 days old) by luxlife (Under a Pecan Tree)        
My sister still has my Silverado!

 I originally gave it to my mom in 1990, but she was strictly an upright user. My sister told me that she remembered it was in one of her closets after some nasty disposable machine of hers died. She says that when she fired it up that she forgot how much suction it had. I almost reprimanded her for waiting all of this time to find out how good it was. I think she figured it out.


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