How a Robot Vacuum Makes me a Better Husband

I hate vacuuming. I always have. Vacuums annoy me, at best. The act of vacuuming - ug. I'd rather go to the dentist. For these reasons, Teresa has always taken care of this particular chore. I still do things around the house, mainly fixing things, taking out the trash, dishes, and cat litter boxes. Since Teresa is obviously in charge of floor care she gets the final say in the equipment she uses. We graduated from a conventional bagged vacuum about 10 years ago to a Dyson. I really hate this thing. As far as I'm concerned, the transition to "bagless" is a big FU to consumers. What a useless idea this is. Now after stirring up all the dust while vacuuming, you also get an extra dose in the face when you try to empty the canister, and again when you try to clean the 50 filters. BUT Teresa likes it and I only have to use it once a year. To be honest, we are lucky that my one-time-a-year use hasn't resulted in me running it over with may car (like the cordless phone, VCR, and blender). I digress.

Shortly after we got this particular vacuum we replaced most of our carpet with laminate floors, and bought a Mint, swiffer robot. We call her Rosie, like the "Jetson's." This little engineering marvel increased my involvement in floor cleaning by 100%. It's like a Ronco for floors, set it and forget it.

 When Teresa started looking at robot vacuums I was apprehensive because of the price. Ultimately, we bought one. BEST DECISION EVER. A step up from the Mint, this thing is on a schedule and is completely automatic (except when it gets stuck or needs it's dust bin emptied). It starts in the morning and vacuums our room, the bathroom, the cat's bathroom, the hall, entry way, and bar room, then it returns to it's charging station. It effectively picks up all the cat hair and sand daily. It makes a huge difference in the amount of vacuuming Teresa has to fit in on a monthly basis.

We call it Tony, like "Who's the Boss."

Here's the thing: I enjoy the act of emptying that thing's dust bin. I do it every other day. It takes less than a minute (still bagless and I do hate that but it doesn't seem as bad, and the filter cleaning is still a pain). Once a week I put it in the living room to pick up all the dog hair. I'm happy to do it because it is one less thing for Teresa to worry about and it doesn't result in me wanting to run something over with my car.

This morning we had a discussion about how often Teresa empties the dust bin on the robot. Maybe once a month. I came to the conclusion that the robot helps me be a better husband. It encourages me  to do more things around the house. Dishes, trash, cat boxes, and fixing things don't take a lot of time, and I'm able to fit those into my normal days without much trouble. Teresa "cleans" where I only "pick-up," does all the laundry and bed sheet stuff, shopping and scheduling. Everything balances out pretty well. The problems occur when we go into major training mode. We trash the house quicker because we are always short on time. Laundry increases exponentially because of workout clothes and towels. My contribution with the vacuuming helps alleviate the extra demands our "Athletic" lifestyle has put on the household.

The robot vacuum helps.

And I'm finally getting older and more mature and have figured out more of this "being an Adult" stuff. -- that probably helps too.