Day 51: What is a necessity

I bought a vacuum.

A cheap one. Not a fancy "buy it for life" one. I realize that this vacuum will probably start to fall apart in a few years. But I can't afford a fancy BIFL vacuum. And I need one now so I stop putting off doing things that actually need to get done.

And these are actual needs. Like... keeping a tidy house. My ADHD chaos already struggles to be tidy. I don't need an excuse of a broken vacuum to keep me from doing it. Because the household does have a really nice BIFL vacuum. But it needs some maintenance because it's not working properly. And because this is a household of ADHD folk, that repair just... hasn't happened.

Yes, it would be more logical to repair it and keep using. But I also want a lightweight vacuum for the basement so we don't have to lug the heavy one up and down the stairs. I want something that is just a quick clean, not a deep clean.

So I took advantage of the holiday sales and bought myself a basic and generally reliable (for a few years, at least) vacuum. Nothing super fancy. Nothing that will make me cry when the motor invariable blows out.

Essentially, this is a disposable vacuum, which is not how I want to view appliances. But to reclaim my sanity and my home life, that's how I need to view it. I don't need more hurdles between me and trying to clean my house.

So, considering we do have a fancy expensive vacuum that should work just fine after a repair, it doesn't seem like a need to buy a new one. But sometimes the world just doesn't work that way. I can't always be the perfectly responsible one. I can barely be a reasonably responsible person – and when I am, all my "responsible" energy is used up just trying to do my day job.

So yeah, spending $150 on a secondary vacuum is not frivolous to me.

(What is frivolous is buying two containers chocolate candies on my way out from the Big Warehouse Store – hey, it was on sale! But at least it's a consumable, right? Right???)