The Pet that Makes Everything Better
Date Posted: November 2nd, 2009
For my graduation present, Aaron got me a Roomba. Specifically a Model 530 Roomba. Let me tell you, in spite of it being a cleaning appliance, it is the coolest present I’ve gotten in a while. Our house is now the most vacuumed house of anyone I know, and it’s all thanks our Roomba, Sven.
If you google at all you’ll find plenty of reviews about what Roomba can and can’t do, so I’m not going to repeat them here. Instead I’ll tell you about some indirect benefits of having a Roomba do the vacuuming and some tip or two about how to keep it in good working order.
Good Thing 1: No Clutter on the Floor
Sven can’t clean under the pile of dirty clothes on the floor. In fact he’ll get stuck in them.
This was the main reason I wanted to get a Roomba: I wanted a strong incentive to keep my clutter off of the floor. For the most part it’s worked. At the very least I’m quicker now to put away whatever it is that’s on the ground, since I’d like to let Sven be able to vacuum all the rooms.
Of course, the way around this is to pile your clutter on couches…
Good Thing 2: No Crumbs in the Kitchen
We cook a lot. And with cooking comes food prep detritus landing on the floor. Before Sven we’d sweep the floor after washing the dishes. I used to dread doing it. Now we can just put Sven in the kitchen and let him do his thing. It’s not perfect, but it goes a long way toward making our kitchen a more pleasant place to work.
Tip: How to Clean Your Roomba
The one downside with the Roomba is that it has to be cleaned fairly often, and unlike other vacuum cleaners the process has multiple steps. You have to empty out the bin and then clean off the brushes. If you have long hair the brushes will have hair wrapped around it. Both Aaron and I have long hair so we’ve experienced this firsthand.
Roomba’s fairly easy to clean except for the beater brush. For whatever reason, the part that gets lots of hair caught in it is a solid piece of plastic that can’t be removed. At least not easily. There’s no tool that comes with it either.
To clean out that roller we use a pair of Toenail clippers kinda like these. They aren’t perfect, since they don’t quite fit inside the clogged area, but they do a pretty good job. With enough patience I can usually remove all of the hair stuck in there.
Final Thoughts
Will the Roomba solve all of your clutter problems? No. You have to really want to not have clutter first. Roomba can only act as a final push to get you to keep it off. Also, I’d say you have to already be pretty enamored with the idea of Roomba doing the vacuuming for you. If you don’t think Roomba is the coolest thing ever, I imagine it’s affect on your life will reflect that.
Was it worth it for me? Absolutely. Will it be worth it for you? You’ll have to answer that yourself.
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