Re: Things purchased that were truly useful

[wabmester]

TH pretty much nailed it. We've got all hardwood floors, two dogs and a cat. Our short-haired dog tricked us. We got him assuming he wouldn't shed. He sheds *all* the time. We got a roomba to basically follow him around and collect his lost fur. It does a fine job, especially under the bed.

The only real annoyance is that the twirling side brush thing happily gets wound up in rug frills. So you need to either tuck the frills under the rug or help roomba unwind after it yelps at you.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Oh yeah, and Anne, dont take it to bed with you. I dont think it'd provide a lot of entertainment :P

I forgot about under-the-bed cleaning. Does a decent job of that.

I heard once that a Roomba of somewhat higer intelligence (think similar to a pig) enlisted other
household appliances and supplies (including
dryer sheets who readily attach to all kinds of stuff). Eventually they evicted the owners and set
up their own government. They had their own slogans
and a song, something about "dryer sheets good".
Anyway, they called the place "Appliance Farm".
Can't recall how the story ended......................

John Galt

[trumpeting_angel]

I have long feared that the Roomba of my dreams doesn't quite exist yet. TH, the process of readying the room for the Roomba is just the sort of problem I imagined. That and rug tassels. It's hard to imagine buying it mostly for the bathroom. I have hardwood, generally, and area rugs here and there with nary a tassel.

Sheesh! It's just tantalizing enough to keep me yearning, but not nearly convincing enough to get me to buy!

As usual, I can be found waiting out the first wave of these things until the technology improves and the price drops precipitously.

Still dreaming of a life with scarcely any housework,
Anne

[cute fuzzy bunny]

You can have that "nary any housework" experience. Its called a "housecleaning service". I used to have them prior to ER until I realized that keeping them not only was an unnecessary luxury, it was points towards a lazy ass situation regarding myself...

Read "speed cleaning" or do what I do when I'm feeling especially miserly...pull it up on amazon and use their "look inside this book", read the index, do a search on the topics that you find interesting, and they let you read four pages from there on. Then search a unique "topic" from the last (fourth) allowed page and read four more.

The roomba comes with a "virtual wall'...an emitter that sends an infrared signal the roomba interprets as a "wall"... some roomba models come with more than one, you can buy more than one, or you can put a heavy box (like I do) blocking enough of a doorway or room division to make the roomba "skirt past". I do the kitchen, bathrooms, the entry way, and the "under-bed" domain in this manner. Sometimes it escapes and picks up some dog hair off the main carpet. Frequently it finds some stringy stuff to gobble up and get caught on. Once I left the sliding door open and it walked out onto the rear deck on my old McMansion and consumed about 30 leaves, sticks and other sundry "rear deck" items before my dad said "you know your vacuum toy is out on the deck eating stuff?".

I did fix the underbed "problem" when I took the reciprocating saw to the bed legs and shortened my over-high bed to what is basically a platform bed. My oldest dog was having some trouble jumping up that high. I no longer, therefore, have an "under-bed". This has resulted in several unintended consequences. My boy dog has discovered that he can "lick face" with little effort by walking over to my side at 6am. The cats are more likely to jump up onto the bed since they can preview the dog situation prior to committing themselves. Hilarity often ensues. The bed is now somewhat an extension of the floor for dog and cat chasing parties, in which I frequently participate, which is why I have a broken toe and a currently partially disabled knee. Oh yeah, and I dont have to send the roomba under there anymore, because there's no 'there' there.

But I digress. As usual.

[trumpeting_angel]

Thanks for the housekeeping tips, TH. I go through periods during which I find cleaning up to be very satisfying, but (longer) periods during which I'm busy with work, cooking, and the errands of life, and the underbed and behind-the-dresser situations become quite daunting.

I take it you've had this Roomba for years now, and still it munches its way around the house? It may be on my Christmas list after all. But the Roomba won't solve my housework situation until I finish with the OTHER housekeeping hurdle: clutter. I have begun the battle with clutter, and even continued it as I moved out of my office into my home office, downsizing dramatically in the process. But there is much more to be done. A tag sale is in my near future.

Re cats, dogs, toes, chasing: please send photos.

Anne

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Just remember: every square foot you cover with clutter is a square foot that doesnt have to be cleaned.

Extra bonus points if you can completely nuke a room with heaps of junk and boxes such that its more expedient to close the door and never open it unless you think something you might need lurks within.

I'm up to 2 rooms with closed doors and half my garage that requires one to avert the eyes when passing...

Hey TH! I feel your pain man!

My motorcycle remains in Texas where it has been
all winter. I used to keep it in my garage. Alas, now
there is no room. In fact, a person can no longer
walk from one end of the garage to the other, much
less store a motorcycle (obviously cars/trucks are
out of the question). I am a liquidator and my spouse
is a collector. She is collecting faster than I can
eliminate.

John Galt

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Johnny -

5 gallon can of gas and something ablaze...

Hello Cut-throat. Beautiful car! We all need to enjoy some little luxuries, even as we tip toe through ER.
The Lexus would have been something I might have
enjoyed when I was a leader. Now, I would be like a fish out of water. When I was a big fish in a small pond,
I might have been lured. But, holy mackerel, I would be a real sucker to take the bait
now. No, I must hatch other ideas. No Lexus at the
end of my rainbow.

John Galt

[unclemick]

1932 Ford deuce coupe - after a hobby stock makes me rich. One of dougnut shops where certain old retired pharts gather is across from a custom restorer with a regular parade of mustangs, corvettes,assorted muscle cars, and ford hot rods.

Nice car Cut-Throat.

Hi John,

I really enjoy the puns, but I wasn't fishing for any.

[wabmester]

I've been tempted by vintage cars before, but I always end up reminding myself about how much automobile quality has improved over the years. It wasn't so long ago that if you owned a car, you needed to know how to fix them. Now, they're complicated enough that they're impossible to fix without specialized tools, but they rarely break down, so you just drive around in blissful ignorance.

Personally, I could never find a single car to satisfy me. So, I ended up with too many cars, but each is too useful (or fun) to get rid of....

[yelnad]

This thread focused on the Roomba for awhile. Any updates from folks? Still like them?

What about the new Scooba? Does anyone have one? I'm thinking about getting one for my kitchen. It's a large room and I DETEST sweeping and mopping. We have 2 dogs and it would need to pick up some hair along the way. Currently, I only sweep parts of the kitchen once a week or so and mop it 2-3 times a year. Consumer Reports doesn't give them a good rating, but it's got to do better than I currently do on my own. Reviews from individuals online seem to like it.

I would like a regular roomba, but one swipe of the living room with the vacuum fills the dang thing with so much dog hair you would be amazed (unless you own dogs -- then you know).

There is currently a 30 day money back guarantee for them if you buy directly from iRobot.com. Some of the other retailers also have guarantees (some lifetime return policies). And discover card gives double rewards to Shaper Image which also sells them. Scooba retails for $399.

[Jane_Doe]

yelnad-

My Mom and sister both have them and love them! My house has a screwy floor plan plus the idea of worrying about moving stuff and picking up for it turns me off!

BTW, just read thru this thread -

Uncle Mick,

Is it time yet for you to splurge on the 1932 Ford deuce coupe?

Go for it!

Jane

[jj]

yelnad,


I've had a Roomba since December 2004 so consider myself well qualified to respond.* I like it -* but with reservations.* I still use it almost every day, which says something.

I got mine with the three year guarantee, well worth the extra, as I am already on my third machine.* My two replacements so far were both under the 12 month guarantee which comes with the machine, I am now entitled to one more replacement under the three year guarantee which takes care of years two and three!* I bought from my local Sharper Image, which was a good move as I just package the whole thing up when it mal-functions and get a replacement on the spot.

For someone who is lazy, has a dog/cat and doesn't like to vacuum (or all three, me )it's a wonderful thing.* It works well on tile, wood and fitted carpet.* It's fine on some of my rugs which are not too much higher than the surrounding floor, but it does not like fringes on rugs - at all.* (Gets caught up and can make the thing die!)* You will need to do a little preping as you first get the m/c to make sure that you have no dangling cords, all gaps are adequate for the m/c to get through, etc.* This is no real chore as seeing the thing operate for the first time or two is truly fascinating.* If you get the Discovery model you can set it to "max" before you go out and then it will do its stuff and return to its base to re-charge ready for the next time.* I find that it really cuts down on the pet hair furballs which appear really, really quickly in my house.* It's much easier to mop on a roomba'd floor than when it's all covered in hair.* Obviously, it won't do stairs and it's not good at getting into corners, although along the edges it does fairly well.* It can't touch the tops of base boards, either.* So, every now and again you're going to need to vacuum, but that can be much reduced.*

Any specific questions, please ask....

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Since my last report mine died. I got another one on a stupid cheap sale (roomba red for about $50). When the kitchen floor is really disgusting and I dont feel like sweeping, I throw it down on the floor while i'm feeding the baby. He's pretty interested in watching it, so I can shovel a lot of oatmeal into him without much fanfare.

Picks up a lot of stuff on hard floors. Pain in the butt to clean. Gets stuck under the edges of cabinets sometimes. Some stuff hits the power button and shuts it off. Occasionally gets 'stuck' in an area and uses the full battery charge doing a 5x7 space while never getting to the other parts of the room.

Bottom line: when this one dies, unless i can get one for $20-30 I wouldnt bother replacing it.

[Outtahere]

I was wondering how those things would work with pet hair. I would get one but I have several areas in my home where the floors are different hights between rooms from remodeling an ooooooold house. Leveling the floors left me with a raised kitchen (4inches) and a recessed livingroom (3 inches), I don't think it would be able to handle that.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Nope, it wont go over an 'edge'. It detects any substantial change in the surface and turns.

Its not bad on surface pet hair. Wont deeply vacuum a rug though.

[Outtahere]

I don't have many rugs because of the dog but there are several "edges", guess I'll keep my regular vacume.