# \[HOWTO\] Create a flow that vacuums the home only when you're gone (and stops when you arrive early) **URL:** \ **Category:** Tutorials\ **Tags:** flow\ **Created:** [January 6, 2022, 10:52am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/howto-create-a-flow-that-vacuums-the-home-only-when-youre-gone-and-stops-when-you-arrive-early/57923 "2022-01-06T10:52:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![anon61197305](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@anon61197305](https://community.homey.app/u/anon61197305)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 10:52am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/howto-create-a-flow-that-vacuums-the-home-only-when-youre-gone-and-stops-when-you-arrive-early/57923/1 "2022-01-06T10:52:00Z")
My robot vacuum is only programmable on times. Especially with working from home that is not ideal. I do not want to be disturbed while I am working. **Situation** You want your robot vacuum to clean while you are not home, but just once a day. You never want to be bothered seeing the thing at work. **Prerequisites** You need a vacuum connected to Homey. And your geofencing needs to work (for all members of the house). **Good to know** Unfortunately I cannot add my new vacuum to the Xiaomi app due to an error. You’ll see empty or unavailable cards. **Let’s get started!** _STEP 1_ We need a few variables to make sure it does what we want. 1. Variable _Stofzuiger bezig?_ (or _Vacuuming?_), _boolean_, set it to _false_. This indicates that your house is actually being vacuumed right now. 2. Variable _Gestofzuigd vandaag?_ (or _Vacuumed today?_), _boolean_, set it to _false_. When the vacuum finishes the while task, this will mark it so. _STEP 2_ We create a flow that will start the vacuum. ![Schermafbeelding 2022-01-06 om 11.36.04](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/a/0/a0ea16a0ee8adbdbfe25835d228ccb5ce3673312.jpeg) How does this flow work? - The flow starts when the last person leaves the house. - Optional: I’ve added a time slot where I do want to vacuum. - As I only want the vacuum to vacuum once per day, I check if it already made a complete cycle. - If both conditions pass I fire up the vacuum! I also set both variable to true. _STEP 3_ We create a flow when somebody returns to the house. ![Schermafbeelding 2022-01-06 om 11.40.25](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/d/9/d95ff133fcee47e7bfe62a2b9d8559818c049635.jpeg) How does this flow work? - The flow is started when someone enters the geofence. - If the vacuum is busy, the flow continues. - It stops the vacuum and commands it to return to the dock. - I set both variables to false (it didn’t run a full cycle). _STEP 4_ If the vacuum finishes his cycle, we need to register that. ![Schermafbeelding 2022-01-06 om 11.43.34](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/8/2/82eddf86ec6ab3e5600ee78a8a106a49266870b2.png) How does this flow work? - The trigger is where the vacuum status changes to charging. Because: if the vacuum returns after finishing, that is the status it’ll have. - We check if the variable is set to true. This eliminates the charging status we also have in step 3. - As a result we change the other variable to no. - We leave the _Gestofzuigd vandaag?_ variable untouched. Because the vacuum made a full cycle, so even when you leave the house again, it will not do another cycle. _STEP 5_ We need a daily reset! The _Gestofzuigd vandaag?_ variable needs to be set to _false_ at midnight. ![Schermafbeelding 2022-01-06 om 11.49.31](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/1/c/1c8a46aa926389366a6fabd33026f1c51fb9a27f.png) How does this flow work? - At (one minute) for midnight this flow runs. - It sets the variable to _false_ for another day of cleaning!