How Geeks Get Out of Housework...

Cleaning the floors at our house has always been one of Matt's "honey do's". A few years ago he was pleased to discover that he could get a robot to vacuum for him. We purchased an iRobot Roomba. He was quite happy as he only had to mop the floors after "Rosie" (Our name for our Roomba--after the Jetson's robot). However, early Roombas had a few flaws that made them break down after about a year or two. Most of the mechanicals were a result of the onslaught of pet hair Rosie had to clean up on a day to day basis. Roombas are a little pricey so we decided that it wasn't cost effective if they were going to break every year. So Matt begrudgely went back to vacuuming and mopping. Spending precious hours on the weekend keeping up with his house chore.

After a couple years sans Roomba, we broke down and bought another. Kind of an anniversary gift to ourselves. Now they make a model just for vacuuming up pet hair. The wheels are more durable AND replaceable should they go bad. So Rosie 2 has been diligently keeping our floors vacuumed. She does such a good job that we decided the only thing better would be to have a Scooba as well. A Scooba will actually wash the floors. Today FedEx showed up with the big box. My joyous spouse couldn't wait to test "Scooby" out. He got Scooby's battery all charged up, filled him up with cleaning solution and anxiously watched as he moved about the floors cleaning. I think the results can be seen by images below.


Here's "Rosie" our vacuuming Roomba. She get's all the dirt picked up before Scooby has to clean.


Here's Scooby leaving a nice clean wet trail. He has little brushes that clean up the goo. The amount of water he puts down is just right. No streaks!


Scooby does very well up against walls etc.


Scooby's clean and dirty water containers.


Here's the dirty water being emptied. This is just from a small hallway floor job.


Yuck! Look at all the dirt that was on what appeared to be a not so dirty floor.

Overall, the floors look great. In fact, they're so shiny and clean you can see the reflection of things on top of it. I know Matt is quite happy that his home task has been automated. Now if we can just get a robot to clean blinds & windows!