This occurred to me while using my Norelco electric shaver for the umpteenth time.

I have had that thing for longer than I can remember. I spent maybe $30 on it, and have done almost zero maintenance on it … and every morning it fires up and takes care of business.

It struck me that we often get extraordinary amounts of use of small, not particularly expensive appliances. The little machines we expect to work forever and often do.

For example:

–Toasters. Who buys a new toaster because the previous one was broken? Nobody. We may upgrade on a toaster, one with more bells and whistlers, but the simple ones go on seemingly forever.

–Hair driers. Aside from dropping one in a bathtub, have you known one to up and die? Again, you might get a bigger/better one, but probably not because the previous one went up in flames one evening.

–Electric fans. Especially the standing models. Here in the UAE, the standing fan that faithfully does a 180-degree turn, then goes back again … runs about six months straight, during the summer. And we are coming up on our fifth summer here … with the same fan. The edges of that fan probably have covered thousands of miles, by now.

–Microwaves. As long as you don’t stick metal in there, it will heat up your stuff well into the future. It might get grody, from spilling spaghetti sauce or the boiling over oatmeal … but it will not break.

–Electric tea kettles, stereos, space heaters, toothbrushes, televisions, radios …

You would think the companies that produced these devices would have something inside that little motor break down after, maybe 1,000 usages. But no. Our little electronics keep running and running … and may outlast us all.