[gls2ro]

Well, there is no need to put a ban on refrigerators or vacuum cleaners if you could not safely assume that there will be electricity in general.

Also for other people reading this, please note that all stores in most of the country (with exception of capital city and a couple others) were controlled by the state. Leaving the country was forbidden in general.

So if they wanted people not to use refrigerators on large scale or vacuum cleaners they could just decide to not sell them. It was that simple to restrict something like electronics.

Just add more: again in most of the country there were very few cars running as there was a limited supply of petrol/gas for cars. You could have a fixed amount of gas.

They even decided at one point that on Sunday to restrict circulation of cars the following way: one Sunday cars that have an odd number are allowed, the other Sunday cars that have an even number were allowed.

[tsimionescu]

While the state could have prevented people from using refrigerators or vacuum cleaners in various ways (as you say, banning or limiting sales, but also making it illegal and relying on the near-ubiquitous network of infromants to tell on neighbours who vacuumed or used too much electricity), the point is that they didn't. Refrigerators were a common household item in Romanian cities at least, and so were vacuum cleaners. They were produced by Romanian factories and sold very much legally. While electrical blackouts were a problem, they were not prolonged enough to prevent the usefullness of a refrigerator (they commonly happened during the night, and a closed refrigerator can typically isolate well enough to preserve its temperature for 6-8h).

[soco]

Yes, and you also had to register to the waiting list to be able to buy one (refrigerator, TV, car...). Or you needed to know somebody who knew somebody who was able to get one for you faster, for an appropriate material reward.

[tsimionescu]

Agreed, "greasing the wheels" was a huge part of life in communist Romania...