You may be mostly hands-free, but you still need to prepare your home for the robot vacuum before turning it on. Although they’ve come a long way, they’re not quite as adept at getting around or avoiding obstacles as you are – and they certainly can’t do the tidying up for you.
In fact, setting up your home is mostly about making sure that there’s nothing blocking your robovac from getting to whatever mess you want to clean up. After all, even Best robot vacuum It can only do so much.
In fact, there are a lot of features that feature object avoidance. However, this means that the place being avoided will not be cleaned. This is on top of the fact that the implementation of this feature is implemented iteratively from one model to another. The best thing you can do to get good hygiene is to prepare your home in advance. Think of it as defensive driving for your robotic assistant.
Although it’s a bit painful, spending five to ten minutes following the steps below is still much faster than vacuuming your home or office yourself.
Steps on how to prepare your home for a robotic vacuum cleaner
- Dock blocker
- Clean up any wet or sticky messes
- Pick up any debris or large objects
- Beware of cables
- Moving the necessary furniture
Tools and requirements
- Robot vacuum
- Paper towel
- Cleaning solution
- Dustpan and brush/broom
Step by step guide
1. Blocker of dock
(Photo: © Future/James Holland)
The first step is the one you should take into consideration when setting up the docking station or base station for your robot vacuum for the first time. However, if your robot vacuum is having issues getting in and out of its dock, it will need a modification. Move the sidewalk So that it has clearance on both sides in addition to a direct road in front of it.
2. Clean up any wet or sticky messes
(Photo: © Future/James Holland)
Using a paper towel and cleaning solution, Clean up any wet or sticky messes Before operating the robot vacuum cleaner. This even applies to models that also mop because they still separate the functions of the vacuum and mop (vacuum in the front, mop in the back), and the last thing you want is to have to clean gunk off the side brushes or brush brush because you didn’t clean up dog vomit.
3. Pick up any debris or large objects
(Photo: © Future/James Holland)
This will be the bulk of your prep work. Pick up Any rugs, water bowls for your pets, toys, and any other random items lying around on the floor put them Out of the way. A robot vacuum may stick to something or avoid the area entirely, leaving you with areas that still need to be cleaned. This applies to large pieces of trash as well.
It’s worth noting that some vacuums are adept at hooking up carpets, rugs, and dodging cables, so the best thing you can do is follow your robovac around your home once to find and remove pain points.
4. Watch out for cables
(Photo: © Future/James Holland)
Cables are probably the worst things about robot vacuum cleaners. Not only does the robot vacuum stick to them, but the cables can get tangled around the brush roller, which can damage the cable and the robot vacuum. Pick up Any hanging cables and organize That is, you can’t move it too far out of the way, such as the one that goes to a TV or computer, so that it doesn’t touch the ground or is potentially exposed to vacuum.
5. Moving the necessary furniture
(Photo: © Future)
Depending on your robot vacuum, it may not be able to get under certain areas, whether you have an office chair in the way or a bean bag/ottoman that can cover an entire area that needs to be cleaned. Moving the necessary furniture Out of the way so the robot vacuum goes where you want it. Some robot vacuum cleaners map as they clean – Check these maps within the app It can give you an indication of where the robot vacuum has detected a bigger obstacle.
Final thoughts
Even with all these steps, you still save a lot of time compared to running a regular vacuum around your space. Once you have a good understanding of what to look for to keep your floors ready, you can adjust how you organize your space so you don’t have to do as much work to prepare your home.
Maybe keep your pet’s water bowls on an easy-to-grab tray, or organize the cables from your TV to sit at the back of your entertainment center instead of on the floor, etc. This way, you can just pick up some items on the floor that are not supposed to be there and turn on your robot vacuum cleaner.
In fact, if you want to run your robot vacuum on a schedule while you’re not home, organizing your home so you don’t have to do as much prep work will help you avoid headaches. After all, if you don’t prepare your home, you’ll come home to find that robot vacuum screaming warnings that it’s stuck.
