TRUE LIFE: How to change a vacuum belt.

You think you know, but you have no idea.

Yah. It was that dramatic. But fantastic nonetheless.

So here's the deal, since I've been in my own place (just passed the year mark, woot!) the vacuum I had well... sucked... but not in the way in which it was intended. Several months later, I acquired another vacuum that was also less than stellar in the sucking department. Long story short, I had 2 vacuums, neither of which were very effective.

Today my housemate Amber, our friend Kim, and I were introducing a new piece of furniture into our living room and decided to scrub the carpets and work a little bit of our inner "Trading Spaces" power and rearrange/redecorate. But before we did all that, it was imperative we get the carpets super swept-clean.

So we decided to investigate...


We discovered a broken belt...


We ran down to the Cedarville Hardware shop and got advice from a comical, middle aged man who seemed to enjoy making fun of us for our lack of vacuum expertise. We got a new belt and went home hoping to find a way to fix it.

It's a little daunting...
Kim and I started prying open and tearing apart the thing. A youtube search of "how to replace hoover vacuum belt" was helpful. Joe, a Home Depot-esque man (in his adorable little apron and all) was quite the assistance to us.


After prying and pulling and tugging and PRAYING we weren't breaking things... WE GOT IT ON!
And it worked SOOOOO well! We were giddy and cheering... for about 20 seconds... until...


it sucked so well, it sucked in my keys and lanyard from like 6 inches away!


it was immensely comical...


After removal, we were ready for round 2. Of course, we made sure all keys were at a safe distance away.


Then we had fabulously clean carpets. Happily Ever After?
Well, we ended up having a few little pieces left over from our electronic surgery. We hope they aren't vital to anything :-)