Win a Neato Robotic Vacuum! $399 Value!

I really don't like housework. Yup I said it. If I was rich, I'd have someone come in and clean for me. Well not everything but seriously I could easily give up windows, vacuuming and scrubbing the bathtub. Unfortunately, I am not rich... not even close. So those chores and many other fall to me.   I am always looking for tips and tricks to make housework easier to do or not take as long as it normally does. If they had a housework angel, I would try to figure out how to get one for myself. Sadly, I've never managed to find a housework angel. If you guys know of one, please clue me in.

What I did find is pretty darn close to a housework angel.   I found a vacuum that does all the work of vacuuming for you.  Seriously. It really does.  When I first heard about the Neato Robotic Vacuum I figured that it had to be some kind of play on words. Maybe it makes it so easy you think it's doing it for you. But it actually does do it for you. I could sit in the hot tub and eat bon bons while it vacuumed if I wanted to. Well I could if I had a hot tub. What I'm probably doing is washing the dishes, while talking on the phone and trying to prevent the kids from killing each other. But what I am NOT doing is vacuuming!

Basically the vacuum comes in two parts.  There is a docking station where it charges while it's not working and there is the vacuum itself that is sort of like a round little robot.  I charged it overnight and it was ready to go in the morning. You press start to turn it on. You press start to make it go. It uses SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) which is like magic angel sonar to read what kinds of things are in your room and make a plan of how it will vacuum everything.  It will move around people and pets as it works (note to self... cats do NOT like the Neato). Great way to get them all to go upstairs. Once it maps the room, off it goes vacuuming as it wanders around the house. When it's done, it redocks itself to charge till you need it again.

You can turn it on manually & send it off on its journey when you want to vacuum or you can program it to vacuum the same time every day or every other day or whatever. I found it easiest to turn it on & tell it to vacuum when I want it to. You need to prep the room first. So you need to walk through each room of the house & make sure there's nothing on the floor. You need to pick up the cat toys, your sons socks, the papers your daughter threw on her floor or the jeans your husband left beside the bed. You need to make sure that bed spreads don't fall on the floor or curtains are too long or wires aren't left outside the entertainment center.   Once that's done, I press start  off he goes.

The first time I wandered around after him just making sure he didn't get confused or lost or something. No problem. He knew exactly where he was going.  I did have to move him from the living room to the kitchen because we have a slight lift between the rooms that he can't make it over.  No problem.  Just let him finish the room. Turn him off & move him to the next room. That way he doesn't get confused. If you don't have that lift, he'll go from room to room on one story & no he doesn't fall down stairs.

The first 3-4 times you use it, it picks up a lot of junk off the floor. Once it's been used 3 or 4 times, you might see it's picking up less stuff because it has really deep cleaned the area and now it's just maintaining. It does a great job vacuuming.  We have wood floors & very low pile rugs. So I cannot say how it would do on thicker carpet but it did a great job on what we have. This is going to save me an amazing amount of time from vacuuming or sweeping every day.  Sarah18 and I have asthma and we have three cats so vacuuming and sweeping daily is a must in our house.

It holds 3 quarts of dirt/dust before you need to empty it.  According to the directions, it works on carpet, hardwood, Pergo, linoleum, vinyl and tile with no problem. It completely cleaned our downstairs without the need to recharge itself but if it did need to recharge itself (say if you had a HUGE house), it would re-dock, charge & then go off again to finish.  You empty the dirt bin after each use & lightly tap the filter to clean it.  The filter can be reused for about 6 months. If you don't clean it after each use, it will tell you when the bin is full.

You can create boundary markers to tell it not to clean a specific area. Let's say you don't want it to go near the woodstove, you just use some of the included boundary marker to block off an area.  It won't cross that area. You get 15 feet of boundary marker to use as you want.


Am I going to never pick up a vacuum again? No.  While it does get close to the walls, it doesn't get right up to the juncture of the wall/floor so weekly or so I still go around with a hose & suck up whatever cat hair may be there. It isn't going to move chairs to get under the kitchen table or your husband's desk. It will fit under many coffee tables but with ours the legs are too close. It also won't do underneath very narrow things like plant stands or the wood stove. I'm thrilled to not have to vacuum every day any longer. I cannot imagine a nicer Mother's Day gift than one of these!

You can purchase the Neato Robotic Vacuum from Neato Robotics itself or a variety of retailers.

Connect with Neato Robotic on Facebook & Twitter for all the latest news.

One of my very lucky readers is going to win their own Neato Robotic Vacuum! Here's what you can do for a chance to win:

To enter you must follow my blog & visit the sponsor’s site.  Leave a comment telling me what you learned there.

For extra entries:

1. Follow me on Twitter @scentednights & tweet about the contest. +1daily

Win Neato Robotic Vacuum $399 value! @scentednights #giveaway #win @neatorobotics http://tinyurl.com/3eqmnq8

2. Be my friend on Facebook & post this contest on your wall. +1

3. Follow the sponsor on Twitter +2
4. Like the sponsor on Facebook.  Please tell them I sent you (optional)! +2
5. Blog about this giveaway on your blog AND leave a link back to my site. +5
6. Leave a comment on a non-contest post on this blog. +1

7. Put my button or text link on your blog side bar. +1

8. Enter another of my current contests. +1 for each contest

9. Subscribe to my blog. +1
10. Follow the Blog Pop Blogs +1 each

1. Confessions of An Overworked Mom
2. Momma Told Me
3. Making Ends Meet
4. Stash Mama
5. Socialite's Closet Blog
6. My Life With Rats And More
7. Still Blonde After All these Years
8. Dad of Divas
9. Quick Tattletails
10.Turning The Clock Back

Remember, to please leave a separate comment for each entry. And please enter only in the ways listed above. I reserve the right to delete comments not adhering to the above entry guidelines.  You must be 18+ years old & live in the USA. The last day to enter is 5/15/2011.

My thanks to the sponsor for allowing me to review this product.

As required by the FTC: I received a product sample in order to write my review.  I received no monetary compensation.  All opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.

Please note that  I am not responsible for sponsors that do not fulfill their prizes. I have represented each sponsor with the expectation they will fulfill their prize and in a timely manner I will contact the sponsor regarding your prize(s). The sponsors, in most cases, are shipping their items to you directly. I will make every effort to assist you obtaining your prize but ultimately I am not responsible if they do not fulfill your prize win.