I may be a little odd, but two of my favorite birthday gifts have been small appliances. Before you get all up-in-arms and wondering how anyone could purchase an appliance or household “present” for a birthday gift, let me explain…

My brother-in-law used to work at Williams Sonoma and got a sweet deal on a Kitchen-Aid one year and gave it to me for my birthday. That mixer has moved from San Mateo to Chicago, to Naperville, to Pasadena and now to San Gabriel with me, that is four different moves,  plus it gets used on a weekly (many weeks, much, much more!) basis.  It is perfect when you have baking “helpers” and I can honestly say that I LOVE that mixer. It is the one thing in the kitchen that I can’t imagine doing without. It is also one of those things that I would never buy for myself, no matter how much I really wanted one.

And I have always told everyone it was one of my favorite gifts ever.

Until last week. Now I am in love with another appliance. Not that it can replace the Kitchen-Aid, but it is another “can’t do without” tools in my keeping house repertoire. Allow me to introduce my new love. The Scooba.

A few days after we moved into the new house, I kept noticing (and complaining!) that our feet were soooo dirty. And unless I mopped every room, every day I didn’t see how I was going to keep our feet and the floors clean. Every inch of the 2700sf of our house is either hardwood floor, Spanish tile, or (in the kitchen!) icky linoleum. I had (kind of) joked that I was going to have to buy a Scooba just so we wouldn’t have to wash our feet before bed every night.

And two days later J. said that my Birthday gift had arrived early and I could open it. He seriously picks up on the smallest hints, even if they were not intended as hints. Again, this was one of those things that I would like to have, but would never really spend the money on, and J. also knew that.*

But the thing is freakin’ amazing. I have “Scooba’d” every room in the house…at least once. Some rooms, like the kitchen, get “Scooba’d” almost daily. It is awesome. Pour in some detergent and water, set it down, push a button. It sweeps and mops the entire floor.  The coolest part, and this might be some crazy sickness I have, is opening the tank and seeing all of the dirty water. I mean, we are talking some serious dirt here. It gets it all!

Emma and Addie think the “robot” is so cool. The cats don’t know what to think, and our “little Emma” friend is terrified of it. She won’t use the bathroom when she is at our house because I keep it in the little bathroom to charge when it is not “working,” and she thinks that it is a real “robot.” But, for the most part it has become a part of our family.

And if coveting and drooling over mundane housekeeping tools makes me strange, well, so be it. At least I have clean floors without having to spend my days mopping!

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*Anyone interested in actually buying a Scooba, should check out Amazon’s remanufactured models. That is where J. got it and it works fantastically. It is also half the price of a new model, and he got it even further on sale when it was listed as one of the Friday specials!