Helpful Mom

Well once I had the iRobot Roomba I was in love.  And soon found out that they also make a mopping version!  It’s called the iRobot Scooba .  And I had to have it.  With two tiny kids that were always dropping food on the floor I was always feeling like I needed to mop twice daily (not that I did, just felt like it needed it)  So I saved up my pennies, Joel and I have built into our monthly budget our own spending money that we are able to spend on whatever we want whether it be for a fancy mopping robot or a computer game for him ;P  So when I found a remanufactured one on Amazon.com I jumped on it.  So while the girls were very little I would run it every day after they had gone to bed for the evening.

It works very much like the vacuuming one.  You fill the tank with water and cleaning solution and turn it on and let it go.  I usually sweep up beforehand due to the kids.  But it does wet, scrub, and squeegee the floors although it does not leave the floors totally dry.  Due to the round shape it does not get into corners and depending on the height of your counters it may not get all the way under the edge, so I take a wash cloth occasionally and wipe down the edges manually.  But for that small amount of inconvenience my floors are regularly mopped when before I was happy if they got cleaned once a week(or rather unhappy that that it was only once a week).  Once it’s finished cleaning you empty the dirty tank and rinse it out, rinse out the filters and brushes and plug it back in for the battery to recharge.  So far I’ve had it for two years and have never had to replace any parts at all.  This one takes about 45minutes to clean a room.

Before I had the Scooba I used theHoover FloorMate, which is sort of like a mopping vacuum.  I still use this for our tiny bathrooms and for those spills which are inevitable.  Such as that spilled soda, or the time my husband knocked over that breast milk I’d just pumped.  It will vacuum up the spill and then you can mop the space up and the floor will be clean not sticky.

I had always wanted the iRobot Roomba.  After my car accident that lead to back surgery my mom bought me one.  And I am in love.  What is a Roomba?  It’s an automated floor vacuum.  It uses a rechargable battery and you just turn it on and it will vacuum your room for you.  You do have to pick up everything off the floor that you don’t want vacuumed up, and either close it in the room or use the virtual walls that come with the unit.  Virtual walls are these units that you can place in doorways or another place you want to block off so it won’t vacuum there.  We use it to block off beneath Joel’s desk because there are so many cables on the floor.  It has a cliff sensor built in so if you are cleaning at the top of stairs it won’t take a tumble.  It takes about an hour and a half to clean a room and up to three hours for it to recharge.

Some are sceptics that it won’t really work as well as vacuuming yourself might, but I am disgusted by the amount of stuff this thing picks up.  And by not having to take the time to vacuum myself the rooms end up getting vacuumed more often than if I had to do it.  Now I pick up the room before bed, turn it on and go to bed.  It vacuums the room by making spiraling pattern around the room learning the layout and then coming back to fill in.  They say every spot is gone over at least 3 times.  And the Roomba even finds it’s recharging dock and parks itself so it’s fully recharged when I get up in the morning.  So I will do things like vacuum the living room while I’m sleeping, and then start it on the family room when I leave the house in the morning, and then can set it off in our bedroom in the evening while I’m cooking dinner.

Why am I telling you all this?  Well two reasons, one is that it is an awesome time saver for moms with little ones, and two because they are on a fantastic deal on Buy.com.  They normally cost from $149.99-349 but on Buy they have remanufactured ones for $99 with free shipping.  The only negative I have about the Roomba is the hidden costs.  They have filters that need replacing every couple months, and I’ve found that the rechargable battery needs replacing about once a year.  But when compared with prices of other vacuums and the labor it saves me I recommend it wholeheartedly.