Keeping A Clean House – The One Thing I Won’t Live Without From Now On
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If you’ve read my blog for any amount of time, you know that I’m a naturally messy person who has been on a bit of a journey over these last two or three years to purge our home of unneeded clutter, organize what’s left, and learn to keep a clean home. You can see previous posts about this cleaning, organizing, and purging journey here. I wrote not too long ago about how I’ve finally discovered a routine that helps me keep my house clean.
I’m still sticking to that routine, and it has been so incredibly helpful. I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch to say that it has been life-changing. I feel so much more at peace in my own home. I’m enjoying our home so much more, and I no longer panic when someone unexpectedly knocks on the front door.
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Part of my routine is letting our robot vacuum do it’s thing on a daily basis. Because I had never had a robot vacuum before, and I had heard mixed reviews, I didn’t want to spend a fortune on one. So I ended up getting this Eufy. It’s a very basic robot vacuum, but I thought it would be a good “starter” for me to see if I would even like it.
Well, I’ve had it for almost eight months now, and I thought I’d give y’all an update. Had you asked me how I like it two weeks ago, my response would have been, “I like it! It’s fine! I definitely think it’s helping.”
But then about two weeks ago, it ran over something that got all twisted up in the roller and it stopped working and started beeping at me. I was busy at the moment, so I just flipped it over (so it would stop beeping and turn itself off), and went about my business. Then I completely forgot about it, and it stayed in that corner, flipped over on its back and not vacuuming the floor, for about four days.
Oh my gosh, I noticed a HUGE difference!! Within 36 hours, my floors looked like a complete mess. For those of you who are new around here, I should mention that we have a 100-pound dog who is part German Shepherd and part lab, so he sheds like crazy. Plus, we also have a cat that sheds.
This is the area of the house that our Eufy vacuums every day…
I don’t let it vacuum our bedroom because we have too many cords that it kept getting caught on. We have an adjustable bed, and the Eufy kept getting caught on the cord of the bed and dragging the cord and unplugging the bed. If I can find a way to keep the cord up off of the floor, I’ll let the Eufy vacuum in there.
And I don’t let it into our home gym, master bathroom, and my studio for obvious reasons. It can’t really do much in a room that looks like this…
😀 But once those areas are finished, it’ll vacuum those rooms as well.
So with it just doing those seven areas for now (living room, hallway, hallway bathroom, music room, kitchen, breakfast room, and pantry), this is the amount of fur and dust it’s picking up on a daily basis…
Every single day. That’s just unbelievable to me! So you can just imagine what our floors looked like after four days of the Eufy being stuck in the corner, flipped on its backside, and not being able to do its job every day. It was awful.
It also really struck me how much of a difference the floors make in how a home feels. A house is never going to feel clean and fresh if the floors aren’t clean. Everything else can be picked up and put away (nothing else about my routine changed during those four days, so everything else was clean and tidy), but having fur balls all over the floor made the house feel unclean.
There aren’t many products I’ve purchased and used that I’ve genuinely thought, “How did I live without this?” I can honestly say that I wonder that about my air compressor and nail guns. (I DIYed for years before I bought those! All I had was a hammer. I can’t even imagine that now!) I also wonder that about my Dremel Multi-Max oscillating tool. I use that for so many things that I honestly don’t know how I went without it for so long.
And now I add my Eufy to that list. While I got the basic version of a robot vacuum, it has still made such a huge difference in our home. I can’t even imagine how nice it would be to get one of those fancy programmable ones! Maybe one day I’ll find out.
So after eight months of living with a robot vacuum (and four days without it), that is my honest review of it. Even if all you can afford is a basic one, I personally think it’s worth it, especially if you share your home with animals that shed!
Keep in mind that I have mostly hard floors (hardwood and tile), and then two very low pile rugs. I have no personal experience with how a robot vacuum works with thicker rugs (or if they can even climb onto thicker rugs) or rooms that are fully carpeted. I just know that with our particular floors, it works amazingly well.
Also, I did have to make some adjustments. Originally, the Eufy kept getting stuck in three places — under the living room sofa, under the refrigerator, and under the breakfast room buffet.
We got a new sofa that sits closer to the floor, so that solved the sofa issue. (We didn’t purchase a new sofa because of the Eufy. 😀 The sofa had already been ordered when I purchased the Eufy, and it just happened that the new sofa sat lower to the floor.) On the refrigerator, I finally realized that it was getting stuck because, for some reason, I had taken off the vented cover that goes on the front of the fridge right at the floor. Once I found that and put it back on, it hasn’t been a problem.
So that just left the buffet in the breakfast room. It kept getting stuck under that middle part that swoops down…
To solve that problem, I cut four little pieces of wood and put those under the feet. That raised the whole thing up just enough so that the Eufy can get under there without getting stuck. And the little wood pieces aren’t visible at all. I don’t think anyone would ever notice them there.
So I did have to make some minor adjustments to keep the Eufy from getting stuck, but the payoff for making those minor adjustments is completely worth it. I don’t know how long I’ll stick with my Eufy. I may keep it for the long haul, or I may upgrade next year to a programmable robot vacuum. I haven’t decided yet. But what I do know is that I’ll never be without a robot vacuum from here on out. I honestly don’t know how I went so long without one.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I hope you’ll join me on my DIY and decorating journey! If you want to follow my projects and progress, you can subscribe below and have each new post delivered to your email inbox. That way you’ll never miss a thing!
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