I tried solving the “pre-clean before the cleaner” feeling of robot vacuums
I love automation, but nothing makes me feel more ridiculous than tidying the house so the machine can tidy the house. That little pre-run ritual is where robot vacuums lose people, imo. Chairs half moved, cables rescued, dog toys thrown on the couch, bathroom rug lifted, then the robot starts and gets stuck on one shoelace anyway. So I stopped asking “how smart is the map” and started asking how much setup it needs before each run. My current rule is boring but works: only schedule rooms that are normally clear, use zones instead of whole-house runs, make one basket for floor junk, and don’t run bedrooms unless laundry is already handled.
The robot vacuum became way less annoying once I stopped pretending my home was a showroom. What’s your cutoff? If you have to spend 10 minutes preparing, is that still automation or just cleaning with extra notifications?