Ah, January. The most beautiful time of the year in Maine. The snow. The ice. The cold. I can’t think of a better time

to …

You thought I was going to say shop, didn’t you?

Well, I wasn’t. I can think of only three good things to do in January: Hibernate, fly to Aruba, or just stay home. And since I’m neither a bear nor a jet-setter, I foresee many long evenings chez moi, dressed in layers of fleece and wool, rearranging the living room once again.

To heck with spring cleaning. When it’s warm outside, the last thing I want to do is shake the dust out of my rugs, flip over my mattress and clean out the cabinets. The time to clean is now. But that entails tramping through three feet of snow to get to my ice-glazed car, which will then take me to a discount store, where I will buy many possibly fragile things, only to slip in the parking lot, drop my bags, and break everything inside.

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m not a winter person.

That’s OK, though, because I got everything I needed before the big storm. Better yet, I only needed one thing, and I bought it for less.

What I needed was a hand-held vacuum, which I did not receive for Christmas after several not-so-subtle hints to ShopGuy, ShopParents, ShopGirl Jr., and Santa. If you had told me five years ago that I’d be longing for a pint-size vacuum under the tree, I would have laughed hysterically. That all changed when I took up residence with a fluffy dog and a shedding cat.

So rather than head straight to the Martha section of Kmart on Dec. 26 to buy the jingle-bell wreath that I coveted, I hit the vacuum aisle instead. I saw a solitary DustBuster. It looked lonely, so I picked it up. But the more I wandered through the store, the more uneasy I felt. Then I realized the source of my discomfort: I was about to buy an appliance without comparison shopping. I rationalized it away – maybe it was post-holiday exhaustion. Maybe it was the fluorescent lights. Maybe it was temporary insanity. Whatever the reason, I had been sucked in by the DustBuster. This was not good.

Several stores and a few Internet searches later, I discovered a disturbing truth: DustBusters cost the same everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you go. I think you could probably visit the Black & Decker factory and assemble your own and they’d still charge you $30. There are other versions: more powerful, less powerful, wet-dry, wet, dry, but the standard model costs $30.

The days passed. I thought they might go on sale somewhere, but I was getting tired of waiting. I zipped off to Home Depot, thinking that would be my best bet. And it would have been, had I needed a carpet steamer. The Depot had a diminutive Dirt Devil, but it was a little more vac than I needed.

I went to the office, sat at my desk, and began to lament, when a friendly colleague piped up with some advice. He, too, had considered the DustBuster, but given his pet allergies, decided to buy a Shark instead. He rattled off the benefits: washable filter for pet dander, sleek silver appearance, competitive price. I rushed off to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy one. The store had many hand-vacs, all plugged in so I could test them out. But I didn’t really need to. The Shark outshone the rest, and it wasn’t just the snazzy paint job. It had twice the power of comparably priced models, a long-running battery, and a $29.99 price tag.

As I pressed the “on” button and revved the Shark’s little engine, all of my bad January thoughts melted away. It may be slushy. It may be cold. But thanks to the Shark, the only “light dusting” I’ll have to deal with this month will have nothing to do with snow.

ShopGirl would love to hear from you. Send questions, comments or suggestions by mail to: Kristen Andresen, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402-1329, or by e-mail to: kandresen@bangordailynews.net.