My mom said I should do a post on larger gifts that people could go in on together. She came from a family with four siblings, and she says people from bigger families are often looking for ways to reduce the sheer number of packages under the tree. But it soon came out that this whole idea was just because she wanted to talk more about her Roomba.
My mom and dad got a Roomba a while back, and they love it. And I don’t mean “they love their vacuum cleaner,” I mean they sent me MORE THAN ONE digital picture, of the Roomba, POSING. Not to show me how it looked in action, but just to show how cute it was. Like it was a new pet or a new baby. And they refer to it as “she.” My mom told me that the other day when the Roomba “climbed back into her perch,” she (and that “she” refers TO THE ROOMBA, not to my mother, and so does the “her” of “her perch”) “made her sad sound, meaning she needed attention.” And, continued my mother, “I checked her brushes and I went ‘EEEEEE!’ She needed a good cleaning!”
Well, okay. I mean, is anyone else thinking these people are good candidates for a lap dog or something?
But then this morning I saw that Amazon.com has the Roomba for an additional $110 off (it was already $90 off, and anything that can be reduced $90 and then reduced another $110 and still just be “on sale,” you KNOW you’re not going to like the price of it) (it’s STILL $250), until 10:00 a.m. U.S. pacific time or until they run out of them, whichever comes first. So, fine. I will tell you about the Roomba, even though I have NO INCENTIVE to do so. The person asking me to talk up the Roomba is MY MOTHER, not a wealthy corporation slipping me a couple of crisp Roombas under the table.
I have seen the Roomba in action, and it’s like a large, serious, bustling ladybug. It radiates an attitude of “SOME of us have WORK to do, so if you wouldn’t mind LIFTING YOUR FEET for a second—unless that would be TOO MUCH TO ASK.”
Seeing the prep work my mom did before using it, I realized I would probably never buy one. You have to get all the clutter off the floor, and if you want it to vacuum under things like endtables (where it can’t fit), you have to get those off the floor too. Since to me the WORST part of vacuuming is the prep work, the Roomba seems like it’s just doing the fun part, like when a certain SPOUSE thinks he should get POINTS for putting IN a load of laundry, when he doesn’t do the folding or the putting away.
But for my mom, who is one of those automatic decluttering people who will put your book away on the bookshelf while you are in the bathroom, it’s great. Her house is always decluttered anyway, and she hates getting out the vacuum cleaner and hates using the vacuum cleaner, so for her it’s perfect: she sets up the Roomba and goes and does something else, and when she comes back to the room (this time the “she” is my mother), the room is freshly vacuumed and the Roomba is back in her (the Roomba’s) perch, recharging herself and sending out self-satisfied rays of “THERE. THAT’S better. *sniff*”
So. There. My mom likes her Roomba. And she recommends it as a gift that siblings could all chip in on to give to a parent.
I LOVE my Roomba! Actually, I love both of my Roombas… I ended up getting a second one and use them both.
I have them set up so they go every night at 2 AM, so when we come downstairs in the morning the house is vacuumed. Seriously awesome. The kids know that we pick up at night before bed so “Roomba doesn’t eat their toys” (not that Roomba could, but it’s a great incentive!) and the house looks so much better now that we have this routine.
My stepdaughter caught me talking to my Roomba once. I had put it in the bathroom and when I heard the little trouble beeps, I went in and found that it had sucked up a corner of the rug. Nicole swears I went to pick it up and cooed “Oh, did you get stuck?” to it.
I have a Scooba too, and I refer to both of them as “she/her”.
Our friends who don’t have kids (and therefore don’t have a fisher price factory explosion on their floor) love their roomba too. I feel like it has just enough intelligence to get off its perch during the night, scoot into the bedroom and attempt to suck me out of bed. I think I’ll pass. But, yes, I hear good things about it too.
Since I’m an only child of divorced parents, the Roomba is definitely not something my parents will be receiving, but I highly enjoyed you and your mother’s recommendation of it!
(I’m with you, I thought the Roomba’s just “did their thing”, had NO idea there was prep work involved.)
What model do you all have? I bought the Roomba 400 for $100 on Black Friday for my Mom, and now I’m worried I need to upgrade to teh $250 version. Thanks!
And oh my heck, Eleanor has me in stitches over the suck her out of bed comment.
I have a fuzzy dog and two fuzzy cats and I really like the idea of a roomba (I’m also a clean freak) BUT I’m afraid it would freak out my dog and cats, anyone have one and also have pets (neurotic house pets)?
@Liz – Don’t worry about upgrading. I have had the Roomba Red (the most basic) for 3 years and she still works wonderfully. The only thing I’ve done is replaced the batteries, and upgraded the brushes – and that was only because I got a great deal on a new set. Mine doesn’t have any bells or whistles. No perch, no timer. But it cleans just as well as other models.
Personally, I just wish my vacuum had one of those cow-catcher cattle pusher things on the front like trains have. then I can vacuum and push stuff out of the way, just the same as I do now, without accidentally sucking up the string to something or whatever.
Alas, even if we had the kind of cash where I wouldn’t mind dropping a car payment on a vacuum (and believe me, if we did, I would), the poor Roomba would be no match for the tumbleweeds of dog hair we sweep up daily. Chow/Golden Retreiver mix = Chewbacca living in our house.
I’m wondering how the Roomba’s do on pet hair. I would seriously love one if they work well on it. We have a labradoodle (who sheds just as much as the previous plain old lab) and a cat and we have serious tumbleweed like furballs that need managing. What do you Roomba owners think?
And miss out on exercising my creativeness by vaccuming pretty and interesting patterns into the carpet? While I love the idea of someone else doing some work around here, I just can’t give up this secret pleasure.
Plus I just bought a new pink Dyson that ROCKS.
we keep trying to convince my mom she wants a roomba for xmas. she will not be convinced. it makes us sad.
I am dying for a Roomba. It is my Christmas miracle wish, right after a job and a house with heating and double glazing. Maybe Santa will bring them to me?
My sister has an Old English sheep dog, a border collie, a cat, a messy boyfriend and a Roomba. She loves them all, especially the Roomba (and the sheep dog!!)
This is so funny. LOL! I love that they call it “she” – a sure sign they really love it!
Dude, I have a dog and a cat and a yard full o grass and I LOVE MY ROOMBA!!! LOVE!! I got it 2 Christmases ago and I couldn’t be happier. You don’t really have to do much prep. It won’t suck up toys much. I just pick up stuff that would make it clean less (like a pile of clothes) and send him off! Mine is a he. I wonder why? Everyone else seems to have girls…
This is the funniest product review I have ever read.
Also, my sister calls her GPS “she” and even gave it a name, but at least the GPS has a human-sounding, distinctively female voice.
Two things…I clicked on Swistle as I answered the telephone at work and when I saw the title I busted out laughing. Very professional!
Saturday Night Live has ruined this for me, forever, with their Womba skit.
But I do secretly long for it anyway.
If you have assigned your Roomba a gender, or given it a name, you need to read this:
http://tomatonation.com/?p=844
This is hysterical. Your parents are definitely candidates for a lap dog (or the looney bin).
Hehe…my sil has one and also named it (another he). I’ve heard good things about it but I can’t bring myself to do any sort of prep work.
We have two Roombas and a Scooba and they are awesome (the Scooba mops the floor) which is seriously worth it in a house with all hardwood/ tile floors and six cats. Each of them have names (the Roombas are both boys and the Scooba is a girl) and we use the names when talking about them (as in “hey, this afternoon can you run Stumpy downstairs and set up Gretal in the kitchen?”) Also, my husband refers to the walk-in pantry (where they all live) as the Servants’ Quarters. They do take a little prep work, but it doesn’t take all that long, and it only takes once for one of them to suck up a cat toy and then have to be dismantled to retrieve it (complete with a fair bit of swearing) before you don’t mind doing the prep work first.
Saw it on qvc or hsn and seriously am thinking about it. It would be nice to have on at night or at a certain time when the kids are sleeping so things are vacuumed when we come back downstairs. Cool post! Thanks!
The Roomba we cherish so is the basic red 400 model, which we got on sale for $100. (Minus a $50 Google Checkout promo!) So you don’t have to drop a car payment for one. We also have the Dirt Dog, which works nicely for shop and garage.
I considered asking George about getting a Roomba, but I think out dog would have a heart attack. He hates the vacuum and I can only imagine what he’d think of some electronic “pooch” trying to take over his territory. ;)
Lisa – your Labradoodle sheds? We have a Goldendoodle and not a single fur has come off of him unless we’re brushing him and we’ve had him for 2 years. I guess it depends on which traits they inherit from their parents.
But back to vacuums, we have a purple pet Dyson ball (it’s not our pet, it’s for pet hair) and I loved it when we had carpets. But I only pull it out once a week now because it’s not so great on linoleum floors and aside from a few throw rugs here and there, that’s all our military house has. So I just use my $15 Swiffer vac a couple times a day, and it works just fine. So much for spending all the money on the Dyson…
My son loves the vacuum so much, he’d either love the Roomba or hate it.
All of your posts are entertaining, but this one has to be in the top ten of my favorites. I laughed throughout it, and then made my friend (who came by for lunch) sit down and read it. SHE laughed uproariously, too. (The wealthy corporation slipping you a couple of crisp Roombas under the table nearly did her in.)
I always liked the idea of a Roomba, but now I see that my life is too cluttered for one. I don’t think “she” would like my house very much, actually.
HAHA. This is funny. My sibs and I usually go in for a gift for my parents too. This year we’re giving them the Wii Fit. WOOT!
We bought my mom a Roomba a couple of years ago. You do have to do a bit of prep work and if you have a lot of rugs with fringe, it will get stuck on the fringe.
However, I currently have the roomba as my mom is anal enough that she’d watch Roomba has he did his job and get annoyed when he didn’t cover every square inch of the carpet. My dad has a Scooba and it is awesome. Still work required, and it isn’t perfect, but it does a lot better job than my dad, who wouldn’t clean the floor otherwise.
And Roomba has a remote control. We like to chase the cats with him. They don’t find it too funny.
Wow, that’s really sorta funny. Have you thought about getting them an iRobot? ;)
And I’m with you that it’s all the work that comes from getting it ready that’s the pain… not the actual work itself. Besides, I just bought a new vacuum. Finally.
I have 2 Jack Russells who HATE our Roomba. I have to put them outside when it runs. I have the older red version, which works great, but it doesn’t have a docking station that can be programmed.
I agree with several folks above, this is one of my all time favorite posts of yours! TOO FUNNY.
My parents got a parrot after my brother left for college and they parked its cage on his spot at the kitchen table. They would then TALK TO IT AT MEALS. When I left, they just got another dog, who thankfully doesn’t have a spot at the table.
Perhaps this year, they need a Roomba. They would TOTALLY name it and take its picture.
I actually like to vacuum so I am not really interested in a Roomba (although I enjoyed your review immensely). BUT. I want a Scooba like you would not believe. I hate sweeping and mopping my kitchen. HATE.
For those worried about your pets being freaked out by the Roomba, check this out:
I LOVE, love, love my Roomba. Oddly enough, I didn’t even know about the Scooba, but I must have one now.
My super-skittish cat does hide when I run it, but considering that it keeps my house free of all her damned fur, I don’t mind her hiding in a closet for an hour or two.
Thanks for posting this Swistle – not only was it funny, but it made me rethink the Roomba thing – I’m not sure it would be the best for our house set up. . .