Kelly Spenhoff

One of the best lessons I’ve learned about everyday life came from a crappy broom.

I can’t remember what year it was or even where I was when that broom finally broke. 

It may have been a hand-me-down or dollar store broom. I didn’t have feelings about it. As far as I was concerned, it served its purpose. 

That is, until I got a brand new grocery store broom. It swept up twice the dirt in half the time. I don’t know how. I guess it had nicer bristles? I don’t know about brooms.

I do know that having the right tool for the job makes everything easier. And if it’s the highest quality version you can afford, even better. 

My experience was the same when I switched from a manual crank food chopper to a food processor. Or when I started using a sharp chef’s knife. 

When my husband and I moved in together we bought a cute blender. It was colorful plastic and not super powerful. It made quick work of a margarita. We were fine with it. 

Then we got married. My aunt and uncle bought us a blender. The base is heavy, the cup is glass. It’s amazing. It’s been 23 years and it’s still going strong. 

Don’t even get me started on scrubbing a bathtub with a rag. First of all, there isn’t anything scrubby about a rag. No wonder cleaning the bathtub was my least favorite chore for decades. Enter the unbeatable combination of a scrub brush and a Magic Eraser. There’s not a bathtub you can’t tackle. 

The worst thing about using bad tools is that you don’t even know they’re bad. Then one day you upgrade and realize that you don’t actually hate sweeping. You can chop and grate your dinner ingredients in 1/10th the time. And your smoothies are actually smooth. 

Now you’re looking for all the other places you can upgrade tools in your life. Extra long charging cords. Light bulbs with pleasing light. Shoes that don’t fall apart before your kids grow out of them.

How much happier would you be if the zipper on your jacket actually zipped? Imagine how happy you’d be if you could easily zip your jeans without feeling like you’re being cut in half? Can I paint my kitchen cabinets with paint that wipes clean? 

Sometimes the things that bug you aren’t what you think. 

Bad tools could be quietly sabotaging your day. 

When something feels harder than it needs to be, I ask myself “Do I really hate this or do I need a better broom?”