Robotic vacuums
Kevin McClintock GateHouse Plus

Let's face it - Americans can be lazy slobs, men particularly. Men can stand outside in 5-degree weather to roast meat for hours on end, but when it comes to cleaning the toilet or vacuuming the carpet, they avoid these tasks like visiting in-laws.

Which is why a bunch of men decided to build a robot to do the dirty work for them, at least when it comes to dingy carpets. Billed as the first autonomous vacuum cleaner in the U.S., and winner of Time Magazine's "Best Inventions" in 2002, iRobot's, "Roomba" vacuums a house all by its lonesome. Zipping beneath couches and around potted plants, and running on rechargeable batteries, Roomba's sensors (housed inside its bumper) keep the machine from bumping headlong into walls and furniture, or from falling off stairs. And when it completes a task, the Roomba beeps proudly and turns itself off. Now how cool is that?

The Roomba has just three control buttons, S, M and L, which tell it the size of the room to be cleaned. Each number also tells it how long it should clean - 15, 30 or 45 minutes, respectively.

With updated versions released since 2002, more than 2 million units have been sold.

There are other robotic vacuum models out there, from Dyson, Eureka, Electrolux, Hoover, Friendly Robotics, Hitachi, Germany's Alfred Karcher - the list goes on and on. Check with your local retailer to see which model is right for you.