I have no personal experience with a Roomba. I have seen them demoed a few times at various stores. I've always been somewhat unimpressed with the performance. Didn't suck much up on carpet and on hardwood floors it didn't seem to do a whole lot more than what 5 minutes and a Swiffer wouldn't do. Of course, hard to say what kind of life these demo Roombas had led up to that point. I wouldn't be surprised if a well-cared for Roomba set up properly would work significantly better.
because our stupid cats seem to track cat litter around. We've put rugs by the litter box in the laundry room, but then the rug needs to be vacuumed, plus it tends to pick up some smells over time.
I do have a pair of cats though, so I know what you're talking about with the litter. Two things solved that litter tracking problem for us. 1, enclosed litterbox. Cats can't throw litter around - accidentally or purposefully. And 2, something like
this in front of the litterbox. Between those two things, there's very little litter that makes it to carpet. The little bit of litter that they do track out of the box stays in the rubber mat that's easily dumped. Requires much less cleaning of the area around the litterbox, in my experience.
But then again, the cats are one reason why we don't want a Roomba. One is scared of most everything and would likely be terrified of an automated robot tearing through the house during the day. The other cat is fearless/insanely curious and would likely play with the Roomba to the point where he (or the Roomba) could get hurt. In either case, my wife and I just didn't feel comfortable leaving 'the kids' home alone with a Roomba. Weird, I know.
