The subtle difference between desperate housewives and successful business women
My mum just substituted her 26-year-old vacuum-cleaner with a new one. How come can a vacuum-cleaner last longer than many marriages? Well, she made and investment back then and bought the Kobold vacuum-cleaner by Vorwerk (known in Italy as “l’aspirapolvere Folletto”), which is supposed to be the best brand in this market. And you know what vacuum-cleaner she has just bought to replace the old one? Another Kobold vacuum-cleaner, of course! I was there when the seller came to my mum’s place last month to show her all the functionalities and perks of the new VK200 model. I was amazed by all the things that this piece of technology could do! And to put things into perspective: I have a PhD in computer science, so it takes a lot for a piece of technology to impress me and the VK200 did it.
The Kobold vacuum-cleaner!
The Kobold VK200 can stand by itself, is cordless and its shape is perfect to clean corners and around table legs. The Kobold VK200 has three levels of vacuum power. It can adapt to fancy porous surfaces, like marble, as well as to crappy linoleum floors, which demand low power if you still want to have the floor afterwards. Lastly, the Kobold VK200 can vacuum-clean and clean the floor (with water and detergent I mean) at the very same time. I was in love. I’ve always liked vacuum-cleaning floors, but always hated washing them and this vacuum-cleaner seemed just perfect to me. I wanted one! I was about to move to Lausanne to a new and beautiful apartment, which deserved to be cleaned by the Kobold VK200. I asked the seller the price: 1500 Euro.
Photo by Rawpixel
Damn it. My brain started visualising the cash flow in my bank account and performing some estimations. Then Frustration broke in. Did I have to give up buying Dior’s Lady D bag for a higher-purpose expense AGAIN? I had been saving money for Dior’s Lady D bag since I started working. However, as soon as I had a considerable amount of money saved, suddenly a more important purchase would come up. An online business course. A private German course. Another private German course. (And thanks God I moved to the French-speaking part of Switzerland otherwise I would have needed a third one.) And now the Kobold VK200?!
Lady Dior Bags
I articulated this whole issue to a male friend of mine, who promptly commented by saying: “What a perfect housewife you are!”. It was a joke of course, but still it made me think. Am I now a housewife just because I want to invest my savings into a better vacuum-cleaner rather than a luxury bag? Why? Why wanting to spend less time and effort cleaning make me look like a desperate housewife and not, instead, like a strategic business woman? A strategic business woman who wants to cut back her non-payed time to maximise her payed time. Or her leisure time. Or her relationships time. Or her pumper time. Or her shopping-for-luxury-bags time! Luxury bags afforded maybe by working a few extra hours here and there.
Vintage Ads Electrolux
We picture couples from the 50s with a sexist husband that keeps buying her submissive wife the latest supplies just to keep her happy at home. Instead, those supplies made it so much more efficient for women to clean their houses, that they actually freed up the extra time necessary to have a job. Like the pill and disposable pads that lead to women’s sexual freedom, it’s funny to think that washing-machines and vacuum-cleaners contributed to women’s financial freedom.
Photo by Ilya Pavlov
That is why I decided to give up buying Dior’s Lady D bag (for the last time, I swear!) and invest in my future prosperity and wealth by purchasing… the Kobold ROBOT! I’m sure that letting the Kobold VR300 robot dust my floor while I’m at work will compound my way to become a billionaire. Imagine how many Dior’s Lady D bags I will afford buying then!
That is why I decided to give up Dior’s Lady D bag (for the last time!) and to invest in my future prosperity and wealth by buying… the Kobold VK200 Robot! I’m sure that letting the robot dust my floor while working will compound my way to become a billionaire. Imagine how many Dior’s bag I’ll afford to buy then!
What do you think about supplies? Do you like spending money on them or would you rather purchase something else? What was the last item you bought that surprisingly improved your life? Let me know in the comments below! And if you like this type of discussions, then you should definitely subscribe to the Breaking Thirty Newsletter to be notified when the next blog post will be published.