Research is the Thief of Joy
For well over a year, I've told my wife that our house would be much cleaner if we had a cordless vacuum. We have a corded vacuum which works quite well, but it's bulky, and hauling it up and down the stairs is... a less than motivating prospect when trying to force myself to do a chore that I'd really rather not do in the first place. A cordless vacuum though would be revolutionary. No more moving the plug around! Surely our floors would be generally cleaner if we removed the biggest source of friction around getting them clean... right?
So, as any internet-biased individual would do, I set out in researching what our options were. Multiple times, in fact. Every time, I would see a near-infinite number of models, seasonal sales, Facebook Marketplace finds, refurbished options, and on, and on. But, one thing was always a constant: people very rarely have glowing reviews for the longevity and power of a cordless vacuum. In almost every Reddit thread or YouTube comment section about cordless vacuums, the highest rated posts are people telling you that buying a cordless vacuum is stupid because the battery won't hold a charge for long and even before it starts to fade, they are extremely weak compared to a "proper" vacuum cleaner. The "Most Useful" Amazon reviews are one-to-two star reviews of people saying that their vacuum broke only a week after they bought it. And every time, this is where the research stopped. Many of these arguments made conceptual sense. No matter how far I looked, I always felt haunted by this universal idea that cordless vacuums were terrible and not worth the money.
Fast-forward to a couple months ago. My wife and I were talking about how we could more efficiently keep our house clean now that our free time was cut back even more form having a second kid. In the back of my mind, the cordless vacuum idea started gaining traction again. I made a mental note to read about how this elusive technology might have advanced in the last several months (spoiler, almost not all). But before I had time to do this, we took a trip to Costco. And there on the shelves was what seemed like a good deal on a cordless vacuum from a reputable company ("reputable" as in, they made good corded vacuums, because all cordless vacuums are terrible... right?). We looked at each other and agreed that it was probably worth a shot; after all, it's Costco! We can just return it if it's truly as bad as everyone says it will be.
Let me tell you, this thing has revolutionized our life. Our floors have never been more consistently cleaner. It's so easy to pull it out of the closet and pick up all of the dog hair and dirt on our floors that I'm disappointed I waited so long to buy one.
Don't let research steal the joy you might find from just diving into something.