iRobot

I have a brand new toy, just to my taste.  Actually, I guess most toys for grown-ups are more practical than children's toys...just thinking of fancy cars and power tools and such.  My new toy is the iRobot Roomba 560, a robot vacuum cleaner.  This is more than just a vacuum cleaner, oh yes!  It's to be my personal base-level housekeeping coach.  Most folks probably don't need this, but your truly certainly does! 

The extra-special thing about the iRobot 500+ series is the scheduler.  So, if it is set to get to work every night, I'm going to be motivated to get stuff off the floor and keep the place maintained on an every-evening basis!  At least, that's the plan!

The down side?  Well, I can't be sure yet, but, ironically, it looks like the Roomba might not handle our upstairs carpet so well.  It stops every few minutes with issues.  I'll keep going with it for a while up there, but I'm suspecting I may have to use a more traditional vacuum for the upstairs on an as-severely-needed basis, while keeping up the first floor on a nightly basis, where the Roomba does just fine (Persian carpets and linoleum and Pergo flooring).

Will let y'all know how this goes--it's new and I haven't even begun the scheduled cleanings.  My hope is that I'll soon be able to report reduced overall anxiety due to a fairly maintained first floor!  (The chronic mess is one of the banes of my existence!)  If the Roomba get itself acclimatized to the upstairs, we may see a second Roomba living here soon!  And then there's the Scooba for automated mopping...  Maybe dreams do come true! :)