I just posted this in a random roomba deal thread. thought it might be handy in the homes forum. A roomba is not bulletproof but with some simple planning and trial and error, you can achieve roomba "zen" where all you ever need to worry about is cleaning the roomba and nothing else.

ROOMBA OWNERS STEP BY STEP GUIDE:

1) Roomba-ize your room: remove loose cables, fabrics, papers from the floor. If you can't imagine running a regular vacuum on it, then you don't want your roomba rolling over it either.

2) Place the roomba dock somewhere open and easily accessible and visible in the room.

3) Start the roomba (or have the roomba start via schedule feature)

4) Go enjoy your day

5a) Come back. If roomba is not in dock, search from roomba, either it
* ran out of batteries before finding the dock (move the dock somewhere more central and open).
* got stuck under something (use virtual wall or physical object to block that area). Get roomba unstuck and resume vaccum. (go to step 4)

5b) Come back. If roomba is in dock, pick it up and clean it. This will take no more than 5 minutes.
* empty butt and give filter a good tapping
* remove rollers and remove any large amounts of hair and fabric from bristles and endcaps. toothpicks and scissors are handy.

6) place roomba back in dock and go back to step 3.

Advanced Guide:

*** Lighthouse placement is critical if you have more than one room to clean Daisy chain your rooms/area with the Charging dock always in zone 1. zone 1 only connects to zone 2 which only connects to zone 3 and so forth.

Hope this helps!