Would it surprise you to know that for the last hour and a half, I have been sitting here, reading blogs, but at the same time vacuuming my bathroom and bedroom? How is this possible? Am I a witch? Is it a kind of magic? Oh yes. Roomba magic. Click on any of these images for a larger view.

To some this might seem like the ultimate in laziness, but if you stop and think for a minute nobody likes to vacuum and there are those among us who are physically not able. When I used to work in retail I sold a lot of these to people with arthritis, people in wheelchairs and elderly people. I also sold several to local businesses who wanted to be able to keep on top of their vacuuming without having to be a slave to the vacuum.

Me, I have two cats. Until you have lived in a house with two cats you really have no idea just how much hair they leave around. Roomba is my salvation, especially at moulting time. Many people with pets bought these and came back to let me know how much they love their Roomba.

You can work it however you want. How it works here is every morning I put Roomba in a room, hit the “max” button and shut the door. Max means, he cleans until he runs out of power. When he’s done, he makes this sad little beep, it sounds sort of like an electronic “uh oh”. When I hear it I go clean him and put him back on the base station so he can get recharged. He leaves little trails so you can see where he has been. Over the course of an hour in a room, he generally hits every spot on the floor and cleans it. These pics are from a room he was in for about half that time, he’s not done there yet, but I wanted you to be able to see the trails.

When he’s done, I usually take him to where the large vacuum cleaner is sitting (always plugged into the wall) and give him a quick clean out. You only need to clean two spots – the little dust chamber, and the pull out filter. It’s easy and painless.

This is what he picked up this morning. He generally picks up this much each day from whatever room I put him into. So you can imagine how much dirtier the house would be without him. I refer to Roomba as a he, The Other Half calls him a She. How interesting! ;) If you don’t have doors, Roomba comes with two “virtual walls” where a signal is transmitted to him and he thinks there’s a wall there, so he won’t go past the doorway.

He works on tiled floors and carpets as well as lino/vinyl and wood floors – without scratching. He does carpets especially well because he has the little carpet brush on the bottom. I adore him. The kitties are not so sure, after an unfortunate incident where he stole their tuna. And put it all over the kitchen floor. Note to all – make sure any cat or dog or other animal food is NOT left on the floor while Roomba-ing. Just a handy tip to prevent you having tuna all over the place.

As apparent by the tuna incident, Roomba is not perfect. You will still need a normal vacuum to make it easier to clean Roomba when he comes back to base. Once every 4 weeks or so you’ll have to drag the unwieldy big vacuum out to do the corners and skirting boards. You need to roomba-proof your rooms, make sure he can’t suck up any cords.

On the other hand there are so many good things about Roomba that outweigh the not good. He is also quite short so he can clean under things you wouldn’t normally get to with your vacuum. Roomba is not cheap – in Australia you can generally pick one up for between $350-400.

Do you need one? That depends. How much is your time worth? Would your house be cleaner if you vacuumed it for an hour a day? Do you want to spend that kind of time vacuuming or would you like a robot to do it for you? Do you ever wish for a genie to do your housework for you? ;)

I should mention, this is NOT a sponsored post, this is just me telling you about something I love. If and when I ever do write a sponsored post, I will make that VERY clear to ya’all. ;)

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