Cleaning homes is no longer the exclusive domain of maids. California tech company 1X Technologies has developed a humanoid robot version of domestic helpers that can do house chores without resting or complaining. 

The humanoid robot NEO to be launched next year can open doors, wash dishes and clothes, fetch items, turn off lights at night, etc. Users of the bot can add other chores by updating the robot’s software, the New York Post (NYP) reported. 

Users can either hire NEO by paying a monthly $499 subscription or purchase it for $20,000, according to NYP.

Of course, not all households need a maid or a NEO. Japanese widower Satoru Takaba preferred not to clean up the house he was renting in Nagoya. Instead, he and his adult son moved into another house. 

The rented home where Takaba’s family had lived was left uncleaned since 13 November 1999 when his wife Namiko was murdered there. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that Takaba wanted the crime scene, including the bloodstains, preserved to help find her killer. 

The empty house was preserved for 26 years and Takaba paid a total of 22 million yen in rent covering that period, according to SCMP. 

When the killer finally turned herself in on 30 October, DNA from the bloodstains in the unoccupied house matched that of 69-year-old Kumiko Yasufuku, Takaba’s high school classmate who had a crush on her. 

Yasufuku confessed to stabbing Namiko to death, saying that she felt anxious and depressed on 13 November of each year, the day she killed the victim.