Sadie the Cleaning Lady (a.k.a. Our Roborock)

We’ve had our Roborock S8 Ultra for a few years now, and for the most part, it’s been a quiet workhorse. It runs daily while we’re out—vacuuming, mopping, and keeping the floors looking decent without much fuss.

Early on, Rach named it Sadie the Cleaning Lady, which stuck immediately.

Sadie does have a flair for drama. Every now and then, she gets stuck on the door track to our winter garden and fires off a panicked alert claiming she’s “stuck on a cliff.” It’s a bit much, but we can live with that. A quick rescue and she’s back to work.

What we couldn’t live with, though, was the smell.

After a while, whenever Sadie mopped, the place reeked. It wasn’t the usual damp mop scent—it was worse. Rot meets mustiness meets regret. No amount of rinsing the tank or scrubbing the mop pad made a difference.

Then Reddit came to the rescue.

A few posts suggested adding a shot or two of mouthwash to the clean water tank. It sounded strange, but after a few cycles, the smell vanished. In its place? A surprisingly pleasant, minty-fresh scent. Subtle, but enough to make the whole place feel cleaner.

Sadie’s still a little melodramatic, but at least now she smells like she means business.