Recently I had to drop off a few things at a friend’s house. When I walked in, his girlfriend and he were cleaning the place. My friend was already taking out the vacuum to sweep the floor when he realized the dust collection bag was totally full. He asked his girlfriend whether they had any more vacuum bags, to which she answered that they didn’t. They did, however, have the bags from the old vacuum, but “you couldn’t use them because the hole was too small”. After my friend fiddled with the bag that didn’t fit, he threw it in the trash.

They were talking about the reinforced opening in the top part of the dust collection bag. The opening goes on the plastic nozzle inside the dust collection compartment of the vacuum.

If I didn’t have the exact same thing happen to me, I would have forgotten this mundane episode. In front of me I had a vacuum, a proper bag filled with crap, and a brand new bag that didn’t fit the nozzle. I was considering tossing the new bag and bagging (ha!) the vacuuming, but then I felt like an uninventive piece of crap. I proceeded to – get this, this is genius – make the opening in the bag larger by using scissors. The bag fit, I vacuumed, and my wife was happy (which is key).

I then pondered whether we all respect the idea of “intended use” too much. When the bag didn’t fit, the idea to cut a bigger opening came second, right after the idea to toss the bag out. Is that because we have both kinds of bags available for purchase? Do we “respect” these consumer goods to the point of not wanting to modify them? Really, one doesn’t even need that particual kind of bag, just a piece of cloth and some duct tape.

I think the notion of modifying your environment to fit your own needs, one of the notions that made human beings what they are today, is getting squashed under the notion that everything you need has already been invented, packaged, and marketed. Microwave filthy? Don’t buy the comerical cleaner “specifically formulated to clean your microwave”, boil up some water and lemon juice. Floors dirty? Screw the Swiffer that doesn’t even work, how about some PineSol, a rag, and a bent-over position? Car dirty? Tried a bucket and a garden hose? The list can go one forever.

I think we all can learn what our Great Depression-surviving grandparents have known all along. You can shape your environment to fit your needs, not spend scarce resources like time and money to seek out premade solutions to your little problems.