After many years of homemaking, I can now claim to have sparkling floors. And it isn’t even hard to keep up.
It all started when my newly married daughter and son-in-law decided to gift me a present immediately after their wedding. They went for practical but also expensive. Since my daughter often helped wash my floors, she thought that I would appreciate a wet vacuum. The machine washes the floor and simultaneously vacuums the water, leaving no streaks. Using the machine is almost effortless. Part of me was skeptical, but the other part of me logically understood that if washing all the floors would be another task to add to my list, this would be a useful item.
My daughter and son-in-law did a lot of research into which model to buy and how. When I realized what they were planning, I insisted on paying half as I felt it was a too-expensive gift for a young couple. Since they were planning on purchasing one for their new home and one for my son-in-law’s parents, they ran into a problem that my daughter’s debit card wouldn’t work. They transferred me the money and I put the purchase on my credit card.
It took some time, but the machines finally arrived. Everyone was very pleased with them. My son-in-law’s younger sister became the one in charge of the machine in his parents’ home. In my house, my two teenaged kids enjoyed using the machine and I used it limitedly. I hadn’t really gotten the hang of it when the machine stopped working a few weeks after its arrival in our home.
Everyone took the machine apart trying to figure out what the problem was. The other two machines worked fine. Many family members tried dissembling each piece of my machine repeatedly, trying to determine where the problem lies. My oldest son, who was the first to buy one of these machines tried to figure out what the problem was. No one had an answer.
I was annoyed. My daughter tried contacting the seller but faced a brick wall. She called numerous numbers but ran around in a maze of being redirected to another person. Finally after about a month, with no success in calling, she reached out to the company via email. They instructed her to take a video of the machine so they could see the problem for themselves. I took the video, forwarded it to my daughter and she forwarded it on to the company. I didn’t hear anything for several weeks.
I was fed up. I had this useless machine taking up space for no reason. I had an ultimatum in my mind that if by chodesh Elul there was no solution, I would bring the machine to my daughter’s house and it could take up space in their home. It didn’t come to that. My son-in-law decided on his own to take it to try one more time to fix the machine.
A week or two passed by then when I received a joyous phone call from my young couple announcing that the company agreed to return the money for my machine to me. Hashgacha number one was that the money came right back to my credit card because that was how the purchase was made. I saw the money was in my account on a Tuesday. That evening my daughter sent me a link for the same machine. Now the price was 500 shekels more. I hesitated back and forth and decided I might as well just get it. Thursday night I ordered the new machine. Friday morning I had to jump into a nearby large supermarket to get something for Shabbos when I spied a competing and perhaps even better wet vacuum being sold. I thought I saw the price out of the corner of my eye to be considerably cheaper than what I had just paid.
I mentioned to my older son that I had seen this sale item and he said he had also heard about it. I told him how I just ordered the other one online the night before. My son told me to cancel it and buy the better and cheaper one in the supermarket. I tried to cancel my order but I couldn’t figure out how to do it, and decided it was just easier to leave it alone and that this is what was beshert.
Sunday, I was taking care of my errands when I received a call. The young woman explained that my order for the wet vacuum could not be filled as they had run out of stock. “Would I like to order a different brand for a similar price?” the saleswoman asked earnestly.
I declined happily. On my way home from my errands, I stopped off at my bank which was very near the supermarket, took out money and walked over to the supermarket. I purchased my new electric mop. Money I received back from the defunct one: 1,683 shekels. Cost of the one I had ordered but was out of stock: 2,230 shekels. Cost of the new one: 1,699 shekels. I asked the office if I could leave the machine with them for a few minutes while I ran to get my car, which was parked a few blocks away. They weren’t so happy to be a babysitter but grudgingly, agreed.
The next day I returned to the supermarket to do my weekly shopping. There were no more wet vacuums left.
And my floors have never looked better.
