Good robot. Good robot. Now sit.

I have a new pet. It’s green and about 18″ in diameter, and it’s sorta noisy. It doesn’t eat much (a couple of batteries and some electricity now and then) and it sleeps a lot. And it picks up lots of cat hair.

Just before we left for Florida I ordered a Roomba from Woot (one of my favorite sites – though I’ve yet to see another one turn up there since) and, due to our craziness before we left, it got left in its box while we were away. So of course one of the first things I had to do when I got home was unpack the new toy. On Saturday I set it up and let it charge as directed, and waited for the cleaning ladies to leave. Today Adam and I turned it on and let it go in the living and dining rooms, thinking that they were just vacuumed and mopped but maybe it would pick up a bit of stuff.

It’s really not a toy, it’s a pet. It is so smart, and so efficient in how it moves around the room, I just had to keep saying “good robot” to it as it found its way under the sofa, stopped short of the infrared “invisible wall,” went over and over in a dirty spot, and found its way back to it’s home base all by itself. Then when I opened it up and emptied it – tons of cat hair and dust! Adam says it’s because it’s closer to the floor and goes over the same spots over and over again.

Granted, it’s a bit noisy, but much quieter than a regular vacuum. And completely self-sufficient once we figured out how to keep it from getting in the dining room (which it was having difficulty with because of all the boxes still in there). It has this invisible wall that you can set to keep it from passing the wall, and the kitchen floor is slightly higher than the living room so it won’t go in there without assistance (just lift the little fella up).

Having Roomba might keep me from putting down rugs on the first floor. I don’t think it will like rugs, and I don’t want my new pet to be unhappy!

P.S. Yes, the Roomba link above is an affiliate link – hey, it’s what I do for a living! But if you use coupon code ROOMBA at that site you’ll get 10% off! And free filters or something like that. Enjoy!