Happy birthday to me: No more vaccumming

So although I had heard of the Roomba before, I was a skeptic. The idea of some little device scooting around my house and actually doing the floors seemed like a bit much to me.
My mother became a recent Roomba owner, and before I knew it, she gifted me with one for my birthday. When we first turned it on, I thought, no way: too noisy, too clunky, it’s going to scare my cats and annoy my son. My Mom made me promise to give it some time, and I did.
I’m happy to report I couldn’t have been more wrong. For starters, the cats could care less. My son Nate loves it; and we’ve learned to ignore the sound completely. “Rosie,” as we call her (those of you old enough to have watched the Jetsons will understand), zooms around and picks up all sorts of stuff on a daily basis – which we NEED in our house. With two cats (one long-haired) and my ability to shed more hair than I thought I had on my head, the Roomba is great. It takes care of stray crackers, hairs, dust balls and more.
So you’re wondering how it works: it basically goes in a pattern, even though you may not notice it. If it hits and object, it just turns around, again and again until it gets going in a new direction. We’ve turned it on and left for a few hours to come back to an entire floor having been vacuumed. It comes with a base that it charges on. You have to change it every now and then (obviously) and it beeps to tell you when it needs this. It also comes with “boundaries,” in other words, if you have a room or place you don’t want it to go, you set these two book-end boundaries and it won’t go there.
All in all, it’s well worth it and even though it’s a little pricey, it’s such a nice thing to have as a Mom. I haven’t picked up the vacumm in weeks. Check it out on Amazon; it’s currently on sale and it ships free. And as a bonus, use coupon code CLEAROUT for $25 off your purchase. (It’s good for $25 off all Kitchen and Housewares product over $125)
And an added bonus, my son loves it so much that he loves watching it work. I’ve used this to my advantage. It inspires him to clean where he otherwise wouldn’t be doing anything. I can say, “Nate, Rosie won’t be able to clean with your Legos on the ground, quick, pick them up!” and I’ll tell you guys, I’ve never seen his little feet move faster to pick up toys! You have to love that!