So it’s official: I’m a plugger. Either that or an alien has taken control of my brain.
A few weeks ago I told Himself that the one thing I truly wanted for Christmas was a Roomba. And when, two days later, he came home from Costco and plunked one down on the counter, and I didn’t see it until I was halfway through bitching at him for not telling me he was going to Costco so he could pick up the things I needed … well, I cried. Yes, really – tears of joy. And then I called all my friends to brag about how much he loved me.
Argh. I’d better check. Did we move to Stepford and I just didn’t notice? Nope, can’t be – there are still six dogs living here. That would never happen in Stepford.
And speaking of the dogs, they are the one disappointing element in this scenario. When we introduced them to Stella (yes, the Roomba has a name, and her name is Stella, long non-PC story), I was looking forward to getting some entertaining video to share on here. But apparently they are inured to my habit of adding new members to our pack. Their reaction was, essentially, “Gee, no butt. Nothing to sniff. Ho hum.”
Argh … those poor floors need refinishing. And the walls need repairing and painting. Oh well, such is the price of five years of rescue. I’ll get to it – and in the meantime at least hairballs are now history!
Shortly after bringing Stella home, Himself departed for Darkest California to spend a week with his family. In his absence, did I set up a comparative research study into local cocktail options? Did I splurge on chocolates and red wine and invite my girlfriends over to watch porn? Did I treat myself to a full body massage and facial, change my hair color, and acquire a boy toy, or even a new vibrator?
I did not. I am a Plugger. I truly couldn’t think of anything more exciting to do than to clean my floor. (Boring? Yeah, well, you try living with six large(ish) dogs. On a farm. In a wind-tunnel. In the heart of a dust bowl.) But as I pondered the logistics of this task, I worried that Stella might choke or have a seizure if I set her loose on the army of dust bunnies. She’s a tough little thing, but it was a mighty army.
Plus, as I pondered and contemplated and generally thought about matters housewifely, it occurred to me that a clean floor would look so much better if the walls, and windows, and doors, and counter-tops, and furniture, and everything else, were clean too. Because here’s the thing … We used to run a dog rescue. (I have mentioned this once or twice before.) And although we used foster homes, sometimes we had more than 20 dogs in our home. Technically, some of them lived in runs out in the barn, but Himself is a soft touch, and I insisted on giving all of them “indoor socialization time”, and the end result was, quite frankly, icky. I retired last January and I’ve been trying all year to fix the mess and damage, but even with the amazing FlyLady as my guru I couldn’t ever quite catch up.
And I thought to myself, “Himself deserves better. I deserve better. Stella deserves better, for crying out loud!” So I blew a hole bigger than the one in Kimberley through our budget to hire someone to help me clean our house. And I stayed up past midnight doing things like reorganizing the pantry.
So now, every morning when I get up to let the dogs out, I press Stella’s glowing green belly button. She chirps gleefully and sets off, humming a happy note, to tackle her mission for the day. When she’s done she puts herself away, and I empty her when I feel like it.
And here we are, just days away from hosting our Christmas Day open house for anything between five and 50 guests, and although I am feeling just the teeniest bit of urgency with regard to getting a bit of food planning, shopping and preparation done, as far as cleaning is concerned there are no emergency measures required.
Honestly, it feels just like Christmas!
American Soustannie 
So does it work well on dog hair and stuff? I have long been wanting to pull that trigger but havent. I can’t figure out how it would handle stairs.
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Stella (aka the Roomba), “doesn’t do stairs” (nor windows, nor pots-n-pans)….
She is, however, very good about NOT falling down the stairs… there’s a sensor that tells her to not go over the edge.
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It doesn’t do stairs – you’d have to take it up and down. It apparently doesn’t fall down them, though. And I cannot believe what a difference it’s made! Helps that we started with a professionally cleaned house, but with six dogs you can guess how long that lasts. I’m finding that since we got it, not only is the dog hair under control, but I have less dust on higher surfaces – because Stella just sucks the stuff up as fast as Himself and the dogs track it in.
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Of course, ‘Herself’ never brings in any dirt from the outside… not even after mucking out the horse stalls !
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Congrats on a well-trained husband and a new, electronic domestic servant. Here’s hoping it doesn’t decide to randomly turn on in the night and scare the bejeezus out of you.
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Unexpected vacuuming … Hmmm, yes, that could be scary around here! And of course it’s a robot. So sooner or later it will take over whatever the dogs have left. So we’re doomed… sigh.
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Thanks for the follow and sharing your joyous cleaning tales. A festive take on a not usually festive task.! Sounds like quite the revolutionary gadget.
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Hi Ruth, thanks for stopping by! I assure you, I don’t normally get happy about cleaning. It’s one of those things that’s great to have done, but the doing … ugh, no, later, just let me finish this chapter… But yes, Stella is entirely amazing. She doesn’t just keep the floors clean; she cuts way back on dusting. I hadn’t realized how much of the dust that was making me crazy was because ever time the dogs romped through the house they kicked it up off the floor! So right now I’m a happy housewife. I’ll get back to normal soon, I’m sure…:)
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