“It costs nothing to be kind”: Carlton local making a difference, one vacuum at a time

“It costs nothing to be kind”: Carlton local making a difference, one vacuum at a time

Tori is the epitome of a great neighbour, utilising her niche interest and skills in vacuum maintenance to help the community she’s called home for 17 years.

From a young age, Tori was fascinated by mechanics. But it was the principle that she grew up with of, “If it’s broke, you fix it” that inspired her latest venture.

“It started with a friend who asked me, knowing that I fix a lot of things, if I could fix their vacuum,” Tori said.

“I really enjoyed fixing it for her. It was nice to save her money and get it repaired so that she could use it.”

The Carlton local soon began rescuing “strays” she found on the street – giving new life to vacuums people had discarded, thinking they were beyond repair.

“Ninety-nine per cent of the time I could fix them. Then I had all these vacuums, so I found organisations that were happy to take them,” Tori told Inner City News.

“Obviously I don’t have any qualifications, so I don’t fix plug-in vacuums. But it’s nice to be able to repurpose them and give them to different organisations and families.”

When Godfreys, Australia’s leading vacuum cleaner retailer, closed its doors last year, Tori realised there was a larger demand for vacuum repairs than just her circle of friends and stray finds.

After posting a few times on local Carlton Facebook groups, she discovered that her hobby could save a lot of people time and money – leading her to offer free vacuum repair services to her neighbours.

“The response was crazy – it seems to be a really big thing that people have busted vacuums or underperforming vacuums,” Tori said.

“I finish work and usually fix one or two vacuums, and on my days off I might do two or three. I still have my casual downtime as my friends always worry I do too much, but I actually enjoy doing it.”

“I’ve done so many, I can usually do it in about 20 minutes. It’s like a puzzle – if you do the same one over and over again, you just know where everything is.”

One of Tori’s most memorable moments came when a woman dropped off her vacuum and asked if she could stay and watch the repair.

“We just sat on my kitchen floor and she watched me fix it. It was quite nice to see someone appreciate the little thing you’re doing,” she said.

And then there was the time she had to fix a foreign vacuum that spoke to her in Chinese …

“I had someone translate the Chinese for me so I could figure out the error code, and then I could order the missing part. I had to pull the whole thing apart without any instructions because everything was in Chinese – it was really fun doing that one,” Tori said.

 

Most people are just really happy getting a new vacuum back, and then you get the nice message after saying, ‘It’s amazing, it’s like brand new again’.

 

Long before she started fixing vacuums, Tori was already a familiar face in the Carlton community.

She’s lived in the same rental since moving to Melbourne from Gippsland for university 17 years ago, and you’ll often find her walking the streets with her “best friend in the whole world” – her beloved Maltese Bichon, Lady.

“I have the most amazing landlady, she’s extremely kind and generous. When I see stories about dodgy landlords, I just think, ‘This woman needs to give all of them a lesson’."

"She’s such a good person and I’m extremely blessed to have her, so I’m not moving anytime soon,” Tori said.

“When you see people doing nice things, it makes you feel good about humanity – that’s how I feel when I see people offering help and services.”

“Even though there’s so much going on in the world and it can be so depressing at times, these little sparks of kindness remind you that there’s still some good out there.” •

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