Some time ago, I heard someone say that the best purchase for anyone today is to buy time. At first that seemed a bit odd and I was not sure how to do that. I did some research and the idea of buying time means to buy something that frees up time or gives some time back. An example would be a clothes washer and drying that are in the home. It frees up time from going to the laundromat and standing watch over clothes. A dishwasher frees up time from doing dishes by hand.
In response to this line of thinking, we noticed that Roomba, robot vacuums were on deep discount for Cyber Monday. We looked into that brand and other brands and finally settled on getting a Roomba.
Our reasoning was this: The vacuum that our family has owned and used for decades is a Kirby. Kirbys are workhorse vacuums and when a house is mostly carpeted, they work great. When we upgraded our house to hardwood floors, the Kirby became a hassle. It has a great hardwood floor attachment, but to disassemble the vacuum and attach the hose and the hardwood attachment was time consuming. With the increase in work schedules, vacuuming was becoming less and less frequent. Our solution was to buy some time and get a Roomba.
The Roomba is an actual intelligent robot. It took two days to learn the basic layout of the house, bumping into everything. Now it scoots around, avoiding walls and permanent furniture. It has learned that the dining room is a fluid area so it moves cautiously among the chairs. I get notifications on my phone when the bin is full or if it is stuck or when it is done. I can set calendar days and times for it to clean and then I let it go.
We don’t even think about vacuuming anymore. We bought a hand-held dirt-devil vacuum to get the hard to reach places. Roomba is round and 12” across so it cannot get in the small space next to the refrigerator, so we handle that. Roomba does great on hardwood flood and goes into a different mode that can be heard when it gets on one of our rugs. It will automatically return to the charging station and plug itself in when it needs a charge. It takes four hours for this machine to vacuum our entire house, with a break in the middle to recharge. Our cats are getting used to it, but still give it a wide space, while keeping an eye on it.
Automation, like the Roomba is a single purpose robot what frees up humans from one mundane task. Like the clothes washer and dryer and the dishwasher and the automobile, some machines can actually help. Figuring out what machines can help and getting them is actually buying time.
In response to this line of thinking, we noticed that Roomba, robot vacuums were on deep discount for Cyber Monday. We looked into that brand and other brands and finally settled on getting a Roomba.
Our reasoning was this: The vacuum that our family has owned and used for decades is a Kirby. Kirbys are workhorse vacuums and when a house is mostly carpeted, they work great. When we upgraded our house to hardwood floors, the Kirby became a hassle. It has a great hardwood floor attachment, but to disassemble the vacuum and attach the hose and the hardwood attachment was time consuming. With the increase in work schedules, vacuuming was becoming less and less frequent. Our solution was to buy some time and get a Roomba.The Roomba is an actual intelligent robot. It took two days to learn the basic layout of the house, bumping into everything. Now it scoots around, avoiding walls and permanent furniture. It has learned that the dining room is a fluid area so it moves cautiously among the chairs. I get notifications on my phone when the bin is full or if it is stuck or when it is done. I can set calendar days and times for it to clean and then I let it go.
We don’t even think about vacuuming anymore. We bought a hand-held dirt-devil vacuum to get the hard to reach places. Roomba is round and 12” across so it cannot get in the small space next to the refrigerator, so we handle that. Roomba does great on hardwood flood and goes into a different mode that can be heard when it gets on one of our rugs. It will automatically return to the charging station and plug itself in when it needs a charge. It takes four hours for this machine to vacuum our entire house, with a break in the middle to recharge. Our cats are getting used to it, but still give it a wide space, while keeping an eye on it.
Automation, like the Roomba is a single purpose robot what frees up humans from one mundane task. Like the clothes washer and dryer and the dishwasher and the automobile, some machines can actually help. Figuring out what machines can help and getting them is actually buying time.
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