Recently, johnwordsworth, in his journal, commented on the usefulness of the Roomba - a small autonomous vacuum cleaner. However, I spotted the slight flaw in his otherwise perfect cleaning plan, you see, it still requires him to press a button.

Well, no longer does that seem a problem, thanks to THE SHOOVER!

Shoes help out with the housework

A new pair of shoes have been invented that vacuum as you walk.

The Shoover - which makers Electrolux call the Dustmate - has a tiny rechargeable vacuum inside the base.

The shoes are made of green nylon with a flexible rubber sole and elastic sock to fit any foot making it comfortable to wear.

According to the Mirror a spokesman for Electrolux said: "We all have to vacuum our home - this product is designed for busy people who want to keep the housework down to a minimum. Dustmate provides a cleaning solution that doesn't take up any precious free time.

"As you walk, the base of the shoes collect dust on the floor without requiring any effort. It is a simple yet creative cleaning concept."

The designers came up with the invention after asking consumers what they wanted and finding that they were just too busy to spend lots of time doing housework.

Research found that only 28 per cent Hoover daily - down six per cent in the last two years.

(Source: Ananova, 29 December 2006)

The only thing is, the Roomba is enough like the Cybermen Cybermat and the Star Wars MSE-6 tiny, black mouse-like droid, to actually make it desirable.

Had to wait in for a freezer to arrive today, it's quite nifty and about five foot tall.

Whilst waiting I thought I'd descale and clean the vegetable steamer. Heh, good plan, right? No.

You see both the steamer instructions and Kim and Aggie recommend filling the steamer to the minimum water level with distilled vinegar and steaming for 20 minutes. The vinegar you see, is supposed to both clean as it descales, and remove unpleasant odours.

Vinegar, however, when put through a steamer turns in to vapour. Vinegar vapour then spreads throughout a flat, even with all the windows open, but doesn't leave the kitchen. Vinegar vapour also smells much stronger that just sniffing vinegar from a bottle.

Vinegar vapour removes unpleasant odours by making it so that you can no longer breathe in because of the overwhelming smell of vinegar.

In order to counter the vinegar, and only barely, I had to steam lemony water. There are still spots that attempt to asphyxiate you, and with the windows open areas that try to freeze you, but on the plus side I have a very clean freezer.

I now distrust anything that suggests vinegar as a cleaner.