Like I needed another Lux hose...

[human]

So almost two years ago, I acquired an absolute basket case of an Electrolux Silverado, almost every part of which was trashed in one way or another, I resurrected the vacuum but the vinyl hose, which had a one-inch split an inch or so from the remains of handle, which was itself snapped in two, has languished in my barn until this afternoon. To be honest, I have so many Electrolux hoses, I wasn't all that motivated to do anything with it, other than to put a heavy bead of RTV silicone over the split.

Fast forward to last week, when I found a job lot of Electrolux hose ends, cut off from what looked like Grand Marquise hoses (white with mocha colored chevrons), including two intact hose handles. Let's just say the seller was motivated to move this stuff out of his inventory and was generous in accepting a low-ball best offer.

I've put one of the handles onto the repaired hose and I'm glad to have another handle in reserve. I plan to put the repaired hose into first-string use for a little while to see how the silicone holds. I'll certainly keep you updated on that but I'll have to wait a few days on that as I injured my hand a week ago and I was told to do no vacuuming until after the stitches come out next Tuesday.

I doubt I'll ever use the various hose ends but I'll hold onto them for now, just in case. That said, let me know if you need them worse than I do and I'll be happy to share as many of them as you want.

 

[suckolux]

Sorry to hear about your hand, take care of it

 

[human]

As they used to say on Monty Python...

...It was just a flesh wound

It was a stupid mistake on my part (as though there any such thing as an intelligent one). I was trying to pry a couple of frozen hamburger patties apart with a kitchen knife and it slipped, taking off the tip of my middle finger and putting an almost inch-long gash on my ring finger, the latter of which required three stitches. Interestingly, they didn't even put a Band-Aid on the middle fingertip, even though it was still bleeding when they discharged me from the ER. I overrode them on that one and kept it bandaged until yesterday and although it's not fully healed, it's doing great today. Even though I'm left handed, it's hard to remember not to use my right hand. I probably shouldn't have been using a screwdriver to put the handle on that hose today but when it comes to hand tools, I'm a 'switch hitter'.

 

[marks_here]

Ahhhh

The wonderful things we've done to ourselves lol. I was mounting a skate boot to the frame well son of Poland here was holding the boot where your foot goes, next thing I feel heat and I drilled right through the palm of my hand. I had to put it in reverse to get the drill bit out, didn't hurt or anything after the bit came out which I was surprised, I held it for 15 minutes and I was fine after that. I had to wear a wrist guard to keep the gauze in place for a week while the hole closed over.

 

[huskyvacs]

Oh god, gruesome! I always used a butter knife to pry the patties apart. They seemed to be very rubbery and springy and suitable for prying so I always used those. Ironically my main fear was the metal of the knife snapping in half and flinging back and stabbing or killing me.

 

[jo]

Yikes! Well I’m going to attempt to get back on track!

I admire your efforts to repair the hoses. I’m getting to the point in my life where I just say, “I’m going to test myself to a new genuine hose (or whatever part is needed) to fix things. I’ve prided myself long enough on patching things up and still do that to a degree simply by rescuing broken things themselves but now prefer fixing them with new replacement parts than repairing the broken part. Yes it costs money to do it this way, but I end up happier in the end and less chance the repair will fail.

Wouldn’t it be nice if when we damage ourselves such as when you cut your hand...we could just go get a new hand put on! While we can’t do that so easily aside from prosthetics which aren’t an original replacement, we can do that for a lot of our vacuums we choose to rescue and rehab!

I did notice those cut off hose ends on eBay. I thought about those and thought to myself, it would be hard to reuse them because they would need to be disassembled to take off the electric wires and install them on new electric hosing material. Knowing well enough how the Electrolux hose ends are put on using specially made machinery specifically designed to do this step, and without access to such machinery, attempting to do this would lead to almost certain failure...let alone trying to find bulk stock of electric vacuum cleaner hose somewhere.

I find it odd we can’t find things like bulk electric hosing for vacuum cleaners online. The closest I’ve found is pre made generic parts or handles and ends on hescoinc.com.

Jon

 

[human]

Realistically, the only usable items from that lot are the two hose handles and they were worth what I paid for the whole lot. I don't have the specialized tools necessary to attach those hose ends onto lengths of new hose—I doubt I ever will—so they're probably not worth keeping.

That said, I do like fixing things up when I can, especially if I can take two or more broken things that are useless on their own and put pieces from them together to make something good and useful out of them. I've never understood people who seem to take great pleasure or satisfaction in tossing out perfectly useful things just for the sake of disposing of them.

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in my neighborhood since the stay at home order. A lot more people are taking walks because there's not much else to do and people are putting usable stuff out at the curb with notes attached, saying 'free, please take it'. I even got into that spirit a few weeks ago when I replaced an old ceiling fan. I boxed up the pieces of the old one and put it on the curb in front of my house with a note that said 'Free Ceiling Fan (works)!' and sure enough, it was gone half a day later. I'm glad to know someone else is getting some benefit from it.

 

[madman]

I've done worse. Scraping something with a razor blade, the blade went straight into my index finger. It's not quite as numb as is used to be. Smashed my hand once, ripped a hole in it in addition to being badly bruised. n00bie doctor stabbed me 6 times with the numbing needle, to do 5 stitches. Why even bother numbing it, would've been about the same number of pokes just to stitch. Also I have a piece of shrapnel in my left wrist from an unfortunate chiselling incident. It nicked an artery on the way in.

Heh.

 

[human]

Yeah, talk about irony, administering the local anesthetic was absolutely the most painful part of the whole ordeal.

 

[jo]

Many people just replace

There are many people who are organized and minimalists but do like to change or get new things. They don’t have any qualms about where things go when they are done with them so they use the trash bin and it’s gone from their lives. We know of many people who do this. It’s very convenient for them...quick and easy and they move on to enjoying their replacement product. I sort of understand that for them, it’s about the new thing and getting the old thing out of the way nd that they simply don’t care about where the old thing goes.

Personally I try to give as much of my unwantables away to thrift for another life.

I’ve seen many people who just want a new product even when the old one is perfectly fine, just for the sense of getting something new and different and the old perfectly good one goes in the trash. My neighbor just got a new washer dryer because she wanted a different brand and feature, Lowe’s was slated to haul off the old set which was a set of 2 year old Samsung Top of the line front loaders. I saw what was going on so I asked the neighbor if one of the units still worked and she said they were both fine and wanted new ones for some different features. I asked for them and got them and passed them on to my partner’s parents who desperately needed a new dryer. These people have a lot of money so it’s no object to them to change things like this frequently.

People do this with cars too, but since there is a viable market for used cars and a trade in system in place cars are traded. I see a lot of people constantly changing cars simply because they want something different even though there is no issue with the current one. And this mentality exists with all products.

Jo

 

[human]

I wasn't raised with such wasteful ways and it really bothers me. Marie Kondo and I could never be friends. I've been called a hoarder, told I have attachment issues to things, but I don't care. I do what's right for me. If I buy a tool or appliance, new or used, I do so with the intent of getting the maximum value for my money. Part of that equation involves using and maintaining it to its fullest and repairing it when possible.

I do understand there's a law of diminishing returns and that at a certain point, it makes more sense to replace an item than to try to repair it. Also, there are times when there are compelling reasons to replace the item, even if it is still fully functional. I just did this with my iPhone last week. I couldn't use the app on my old phone that would read my blood glucose level from the sensor on my arm, so when I found an affordable deal for a new one that would do that needed function, I made the jump. That said, the old phone is certainly not going in the trash or a drawer. I'm debating whether to list it on eBay or trade it back to my cell phone carrier for a $50 credit. Either way, it will have a second life.

 

[justjunque]

Hey Edgar,

I like your attitude regarding just doing what's right for you.
I'm definitely a hoarder, and there's no question that I have "attachment issues" with things.
I never part with anything.
On the rare occasion that I do let something go, I feel like I'm losing a friend or family member.
I sold an older car last summer. (Attached photo)
I hadn't driven it in several years, and it was starting to deteriorate.
That's actually what finally motivated me to let it go. I knew if I kept it, it was going to rot away and be a complete loss. At least the man who bought it is attempting to restore it.
I have others that need to go, for the same reason, and two that I've already let go for too long. They'll both get hauled away for scrap, when I finally come to terms with it.
Enjoy your personal belongings in your own way. If you get enjoyment from them, that's what's important.
Sorry to go off on a tangent. The whole hoarding/attachment thing resonated with me.

Barry

 

[human]

Everything's A-Okay!

So I finally got around to testing out this refurbished hose and everything works as it should: Suction—check! Electrical connections—check! Everything's a 'Go'.

I didn't exactly do any deep cleaning with it today but I feel like I put it through its paces, cleaning up cat litter and other debris from the baseboards in the hallway using a flippy floor tool and then hitting the bath mats in the hall bathroom with the Diplomat's power nozzle, all powered by my Diamond J. I just love to mix-n-match!

In the final analysis of today's test run, the replacement handle works just fine and the bead of silicone over the split in the hose is holding up just fine—at least for now. So I've established that the repaired hose works. Now, it'll have front line duty for the next couple of months and we'll see how that silicone repair lasts. If it pulls loose, I've got some heavier duty silicone I can try and there's always Flex Tape as a last resort.

 

[jo]

For fear of becoming a hoarder

I get in the mood to just clean up...and while I hate to get rid of things that are perfectly good, I’ve come to realize that donating to goodwill or habitat for humanity places the item into needing or wanting hands...or another hoarders house! But it become therapeutic for me to clean out occasionally because then there’s room for the future finds without overstuffing the house. Once you know you have something and can’t find it that’s an indicator you have too much and things are getting out of control and that for me is when I decide to “clean out.”

My partner’s Father has hoarded crap for years over and over, he worked for the city as a trash collector and had gotten so much off the trash that he built a fence across the backyard to separate the junk yard portion from the nice portion. My partner’s sister passed away from cancer at 32 with 5 small children, they went to live with the father and he murdered the youngest one, they remaining were all going to end up in foster care so they adopted their grandchildren but now their small house was too small for a big family so they had to move. We bought them a new house in a better school district but we had to sell or delete all the junk, there were storage units too full of mostly unwantable junk and we had to delete those because they needed the money they were using for the storage unit rent to pay for the mortgage on the larger house. This was in 2006. Then in 2017 they had to move again, now to downsize from the big house which became too much for them since the kids were grown and gone, they never threw anything away since 2006 and the garage was full of junk. Closets packed, 2 of the bedroom we couldn’t even walk in because of the stuff they had collected in the unused bedrooms in recent years. All the work of cleaning up from all of this fell on me because my partner owns his own real estate company and must work. I had to have several estate sales to deal with all of the crap. His Aunt also lived with his parents and she was now dying and had 3 storage units full of all of her house contents from the last time she lived in her own house in 2001. I had to empty the storage units in 105 degree heat in July here in Texas and sell or give it away or trash it, she spent $268 a month on those storage units since at least 2001...do the math....she spent over $51,000 storing not very valuable stuff much of which got ruined, rat infested, wet from one of the units that leaked repeatedly, and covered with an unbelievable amount of dust and cobwebs. What little we were able to sell at yet another estate sale brought less than $1000. The night after the storage units were finally empty and I visited with her to tell her it was all done, she died from COPD and never got to enjoy the little bit of extra money she now had from not having to pay that storage bill out of her social security disability check which was $900.

So, my point here is that someone, at some time, is going to have to deal with all the stuff one hoards if one can’t start letting it go themselves, and it’s not a very nice thing to leave upon someone else’s shoulders. Most people won’t go through the lengths I did to salvage good or go through everything for the few really sentimental items that were buried especially since deaths had happenned and were occurring we knew a lot of photographs were buried in an unorganized fashion...in 64 boxes of bills and papers dating back to 1968 when his parents first married. I went through it all, to find those photos of my partner’s parent’s daughter who had passed away from cancer many years before so they could enjoy them. It took forever and I did it out of the kindness of my heart because I was there, just six months after meeting my partner, the night his Sister took her final breath from the cancer. It was horrible to see a Mother of 5, my same age, at 32 years old, die and be there watching as her parents had to say goodbye to their daughter.

So if you don’t take care to delete things that are junk and then organize the true collectibles into neat and orderly collections all that will likely happen is someone will see the massive amount of stuff and disorganization and order a dumpster, hire some cheap labor, and dump all of it, including the collectibles rather than clean it up organize it and sell it or even send it all to a goodwill or Salvation Army. I was only able to do this because I had the time as my partner said it’s better for me to do it than work at my home repair business which doesn’t bring it in much money. And it was his family’s stuff so there was a vested relative willing to do it and we had the money to afford to keep the house and take the time needed to so all of this and pay for the property while it remained unoccupied.

My parents are constantly cleaning out their two homes because they are in their 80s and know that they don’t want to leave a mess for us to deal with as they both had to clean out and sell their parents homes and know what kind of job it is to do and want to minimize this task for us when the time comes that we need to delete their homes. Fortunately one is a vacation home which will be passed to my Brother and I as we would like it and all it’s contents, but their primary home will likely be sold.

Sorry to go off track here but just responding to others who were admitting to being hoarders and having trouble deleting things. I don’t like sending things to the trash either and Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Habitat for Humanity have become my saving grace for deleting perfectly good stuff out of my life to keep me under control with stuff.

And my experiences cleaning out a hoarders stuff have cured me of ever wanting to go down this route. And believe me I would keep a lot more stuff if I had more room, but I’ve decided a smaller home is better and keeping it neat and orderly keeps things under control. I have my closets where I keep the collectibles and work tomneatly keep things stored so they fit in a small space and that helps keep a lot in a small space and that’s has to be reasonable enough. It’s a miserable, thankless job that pays nothing to deal with a huge amount of someone else’s stuff and that’s why most people who have to face it go right to calling in a dumpster and haulers to haul it all to the dumpster,

Jon

 

[human]

I went through some of that four years ago when my parents downsides from a 4,300 square foot house to a 1,400 square foot apartment at a senior living facility. My dad was a collector/hoarder and had extreme difficulty letting go of stuff, even when preparing for this move, which took almost eight months. He avidly collected antique electric trains and toy cars for about 50 years and a huge chunk of that stuff came to me. I have most of it in a 10' x 20' climate controlled storage unit, packed to the max, that's costing me $169 a month. I can't sell shit fast enough on eBay to pay for storage while holding down a full time job. And then I've got my own crap on top of that. At some point, I'm just going to have to have a big ass auction.

 

[justjunque]

Jon,

As one of the self-proclaimed hoarders, I hear you.
I know it's a problem. And I hate that we can't even have someone over to our house if we wanted to.
But, it's a disorder. It's not something that I can just stop doing, or just decide to get rid of the things we've accumulated.
We have no children to be burdened with it when we shed our mortal coil. So, it's almost a guarantee that everything we cared about will eventually end up getting junked some day, by someone charged with cleaning out our house to put it up for sale. When you have no irrational emotional attachment to stuff, it's easy to toss it. I'm not referring to you, I'm talking about the stranger who will be cleaning out our hoardy house some day.
At least we'll be dead then.

Barry