Cat Nap,
"@San Tan, I was just wondering how good your Roomba is at suctioning in cat fur or dog fur?. And does it run for an hour or shorter on one charge?
Second question: How do you maintain the areas where things have already been cleaned? I mean, do you just avoid putting things in the wrong location? Or are you constantly moving items back to their proper places?"
I purchased the Roomba 650, which is specifically for pet owners. It does a pretty good job, but should be cleaned and the bin emptied after each session. It is AMAZING how much stuff, particularly hair, gets deposited in the carpets in one day. The first time I used it, I had just vacuumed throughout the day before with the big, heavy Hoover upright and still had to empty the bin twice just in the living room. After that, it got less and less, but still picks up a fair amount each run.
You have to prepped the areas and should be home the first few times you run it to see where it is likely to hang up on something. Examples would be telephone cords or soft cat toys or the long trailing ones that will wrap around the brushes. It can also jam itself under low clearance furniture, like my dresser, as it tends to follow the line of the object. I just roll up a throw rug and shove it under the middle part as a barrier and it does fine. You can leave dining chairs down or put them up if you want a complete clean of the areas under the table, etc. I pretty much have it down to a routine now so it's about 5 minutes of prep and away it goes.
It has a timer you can set to run at the same times/days, etc. I've never used it since I am home most of the time anyway. The cats aren't exactly afraid of it. More like suspicious. They follow it around and peer around the corners at it when it runs.
My house is approx. 1500 sq. feet. The Roomba will complete approx. 600 square feet before needing a recharge (it recharges quite quickly, btw), so I do one half the house one day and the other half the next and so on.
It does NOT do a great job with kitty litter or small bits (like kitty food crumbs) on hardwood, tile or linoleum that collect in the laundry/kitty box room or the kitchen. It tends to just bat them around and I end up hauling out the canister vac. Fortunately, they are small areas in my house.
As for maintaining the "cleaned" areas, it's probably easier for me as it's just me and the two kitties. Also it helps that I am not a stacker. When I change clothes, I make the decision right then whether it's the washer or the closet and either hang it up or stuff it in the tub to be sorted later. Mom was right. Procrastinating and letting it all pile up just makes twice as much work later on. Pretty soon I would have messes everywhere and get depressed, not knowing exactly where to begin setting it all right again, so now I'm a 'defensive" housekeeper. LOL! Hope that helps.