musings on frivolity, unnecessariness and sybaritism

I’ve been busy for the past week or so and it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Between work, doing some Spring cleaning and dealing with this hot and cold weather we’re having in Edmonton, I just needed to take a break and relax whenever I can. Anyhoo, it’s a good thing I have my new trusty gadget to help me clean the house. Or at least, clean the floors.

May I present, Roomba!

It was given to me by my dear loved ones for my birthday last month as they knew I always wanted to have one. It’s not that I hate vacuuming but it’s hard when you constantly have to move furniture to vacuum underneath. Roomba can easily go under and around furniture and along walls. It also automatically adjusts from carpets to hard floors. Another nice thing about it is that you can schedule it to clean whenever you want.

It came with a number of accessories too. There’s the remote control that mimics a few (important) buttons on the Roomba.

There’s a pair of Virtual Wall or Lighthouse that you can use to either stop it from moving to another space or tell it transition from one room to the next.

Here’s the Home Base where it charges.

And here’s the handy brush cleaning tool.

The package also came with extra bristle, beater brush and filter.

It’s actually kind of interesting to watch when it goes zigzagging on your floors and when it goes back to its Home Base. Good thing we don’t have any pets as I’m sure it would have been a mad house!

Of course it has its cons too. It gets “confused” when it goes over black areas or really dark patterns in your carpet or carpet runner. Sometimes, it also has trouble picking up lint from the carpet but so far, the pros outweigh the cons. I’m hoping the future models will be able to clean the stairs and the baseboards.

By the way, it talks too and tells you if there’s something wrong with it. That’s good in a way as long as it doesn’t talk back when I tell it to clean the room again or if it missed a spot.

Maybe someday we’ll get a housekeeper, but for now, Roomba will do just fine.