Spring Vacation was a learning time for me. There were many interesting things to do and of course I wanted to do them all at once so I could play.
I was well on the way to cleaning our room when I got a brilliant idea: the plastic bag in my hand could join its colorful buddies in the pantry and be recycled in a creative way. I have a plethora of plastic bags of various colors, and it is almost Easter. Those bags could be shredded in the shredder and make a multi-colored Easter grass. I would eliminate the trip to the store to buy a little plastic bag of that stuff the cat likes to eat and then vomit onto the clean carpet. That’s when I made a big discovery.
The paper shredder does not like plastic bags. Although the ones in the store shred and rip easily if filled with apples or other fruit, and usually do it about the time you have them poised over an oil leak on the pavement outside, they do not go through the shredder. They get clogged up in the intake and then wrap themselves around and around and around each little circular knife. Actually, I should clarify. They do shred, and then they wrap their tiny little pieces, all stretched out and tangled into each other, around the blades.
It takes much longer to clean out the shredder than it would have to put the bag in the trash, even though the shredder was close, and much longer than going to the store as well.
The little screws holding the shredder together are under those little stickers on the back that say, “Removing this sticker will void the warranty.” Who are they kidding? Removing them is next to impossible. They are put on so tight that the only way to get to the screw under them is to puncture them with the screwdriver.
Once the shredder is shredded, er taken apart, do be careful of the little knife teeth. Don’t use your fingers. Use a screwdriver instead. Along the way I did learn that blood does not harm the shredder, (and that I needed to go to the store to buy another box or two of band aids).
Pulling all the little pieces out of the teeth is not easy, especially if you had put the shredder in reverse trying to solve the problem in the first place. Somehow that makes the plastic super twisted, balled up and thoroughly clogs the little plastic, (Easy to break,) intake mechanisms.
When most of the plastic has been removed from the teeth and your band aids are firmly planted on the millions of little teeth cuts, attempt to vacuum the scraps of bag that have fallen all over the floor and cling like, well little pieces of plastic, to anything except the trash can. (They are allergic to trash cans.)
Do be careful as those little screws that absolutely would not come out of their holes in the beginning, go willingly into the vacuum tube like lemmings to the sea. I took the vacuum apart and plowed through an almost full bag of dirt and various other debris, to retrieve those little screws. Then I had to put the vacuum back together. I decided that the extra parts could go in hubby’s tool box so we could find them if we ever found where they went.
The cat wandered through and by through I mean through the pile of dirt and then sat just out of reach with her nose in the air. I scooped up most of the dirt with my hands and a dust pan. The vacuum seemed to work okay mostly except for the billowing dirt cloud it shot into the living room. Then I put the shredder back together. It worked fine too, blood and all, as long as I didn’t put more than one small paper in at a time.
I’m telling you, Easter grass is cheaper in the store.
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