Friday(ish) Favorite: The Roomba

So I know I'm a day late on my Friday Favorite, but we had a snow day yesterday (no joke, sadly), and I took advantage of the much needed time to relax and see my family.

This week's favorite is something I've wanted for a long time, but just never pulled the plug on. The Roomba has literally changed my life. I'm a new mom. I have a house with hardwood floors, pets that shed, and a baby that will soon be crawling on those floors. This Christmas I asked for a Roomba, never expecting to get one, because they are a bit pricey. Christmas morning came and went with the family, and no Roomba appeared. To be honest, I didn't even notice because I honestly wasn't expecting one.

Then we Skyped with my brother and his girlfriend who live across the country. He got us a Roomba, I got him a shirt. I have some serious shopping to do next Christmas. But that's beside the point.

Here is our Roomba. I won't lie, it's almost like he's become part of the family. He is a robot after all, so it's kind of like he's a person...right?

 

There are many reasons why I love the Roomba, but here's the hard cold truth - I don't clean my floors anymore. Let me repeat: I DON'T CLEAN MY FLOORS ANYMORE. I can sit and feed the baby, and the Roomba cleans my floors. I go to work, and the Roomba cleans my floors. I'm running around doing 90 million other things, and the Roomba is cleaning my floors. If you've ever had hardwood and pets, you know what a big deal this is. I've gone from sweeping anywhere from 2-5 times a day, to never.

Here are the other great things about the Roomba. You can program it to go off at a certain time every day. Ours goes off at 2:00pm every weekday and stays on it's dock on the weekends. When I get home from work, my floors are spotless. It does an incredibly thorough job, going all over the house over and over again until it hasn't missed a spot. It learns your house, so the more times you run it, the less it bumps into tables, chairs, couches and the like (and it's equipped with a nice bumper, so hitting those things does not hurt it). It comes with accessories that you can put into doorways so that it does not enter certain rooms or go down stairs. And finally, it sends itself home when it's done where it charges itself for it's next trip around the block. The only thing it does not do is clean itself, and it does need a daily emptying of its tray and a weekly cleaning of the brushes, depending on how much hair and dirt your house has. Minor, compared to the time it saves you in the long run.

If I had known how much time and sanity this product would save me, I'd have dropped the money on it years ago. They run around $350-$550, but are honestly worth every penny. This is now considered one of my "must-have" items for myself, and I recommend it now to just about everyone I talk with. If you're looking for a splurge, get yourself a Roomba..you'll thank me later!