Product Recommendation: Korean eraser bit cleaners (롤러 지우개 청소기)

This post could have easily been a Tweet but it's my blog and I'll do what I want. The main point is: I absolutely love this cheap little device and can no longer live without it. You need to stop what you're doing right now and get yourself a Korean eraser cleaner (지우개 청소기). 

롤러 지우개 청소기 on Coupang

Is it actually a Korean thing? I have no idea. Maybe it's from Japan. Maybe us Western folk have used them for years and I just never knew it. But it's new to me so I'm calling it a Korean thing. 

Backstory

My coworker keeps this annoying mini-vacuum thing at his desk. It's annoying both because it makes this loud whining high pitched sound when you turn it on and also because it sucks because it... well, because it doesn't suck. I mean what you do expect from some crappy underpowered device. I think he got it as a free gift at a conference or something. It's one of those made in China items that probably shouldn't have even been made at all. 

It frustrates me because he will sit there running it over his desk for 5 full minutes, trying to suck up bits of crumbs, those little dirty rubber trimmings from heavy eraser usage, etc. And of course all the underpowered little USB "vacuum" does is make noise and push the mess around. I'm convinced it doesn't suck anything up at all. He'd be better off just buying a real full-sized vacuum at this point. 

So I told him, half joking half serious, that I hate the sound it makes and if he does it again I am going to lose my mind. 

So he today he comes in with a new product: a manual, no-electricity eraser bits "vacuum". Not a vacuum at all actually, just a kind of softish rubber roller thing that crumbs and eraser bits stick to when you roll it over them, and they end up stuck inside the small collection container, scraped off by small plastic fins. It also doubles as an eraser itself, housed inside the body. 

Roller Eraser Cleaner demonstration via Coupang

It's simple. Use the eraser part (or any eraser) to erase, and then roll the roller over the resulting bits of dust, rubber, whatever you want to call it. Now your work area is clean.  

The design is noticeably childish because... he took it from his kid's school supplies case. Don't worry, they're less than a dollar each. 

Verdict

Let me tell you, not every quirky little product makes me want to sit here writing a blog post at lunch. But this thing is great. Here are some reasons:

1. NO NOISE. It just makes this smooth, barely audible rub sound as you press it onto the desk or paper and glide it over. Even this little sound feels good.
2. Calming. It feels surprisingly calming and zen to use this product. I'm not great with words but it has this effect that it must feel like when you roll a rolling pin over fresh dough. It just feels good. Like you're smoothing out all the wrinkles in your brain. 
3. Cheap. Did I mention it's like 800 won? You can probably get them at 500 won in a mom-and-pop stationary store. Buy the whole box and give them to the special people in your life.
4. Better quality work. This might be subjective but I now actually look forward to writing stuff with pencils so that when I screw up (especially with basic math or basic Korean spelling) I don't feel guilty liberally erasing my error because I know I'm going to get to enjoy rubbing this thing across my workspace. 

So this gets a big thumbs up from me. I told him he went from zero to hero in my book. He thinks I'm so 웃겨 and even gave it to me to keep. So now I'm calling his name throughout the day so he can see me rolling my eraser cleaner and making use of it. 

Issues

1. I know I mentioned crumbs, and it does work pretty well for that, but try to stay away from greasy crumbs, because they can later leave a stain mark on your paper. Whoops. 
2. I've been using it like a lint roller to collect fuzz and little random dust bunnies from my keyboard, mouse pad, etc. It works for this, but some of that fuzz will end up basically just on the roller forever. At some point then probably best to just throw it away and open a fresh one. 
3. Addictive. You might not be able to stop at first and will roam your home or office looking for surfaces to clean.
4. Tiny container above. This means if you are rolling up lots of bits, it can fill up and the mass of collected bits can start contacting the roller itself again. I'm sure this design would work way better for rolling up stuff upside down but since that's basically impossible, be aware that for all you roll up, that much will be now right at the top of the roller. I think I would like to combine this with a mini electric vacuum, since the roller part itself will do the initial gathering of the eraser bits and then a vacuum above that could then suck it up and out into a different storage area. Venture capitalists, call me. 

Notes

1. The roller is NOT sticky. Don't expect it to work like a lint roller. It's just... soft-hard. If that makes sense. But that means it won't mess up your clothes either. Roll it across your shirt. Roll it across your mouse. Your computer screen. Anywhere. The sky is the limit here, folks. 

Don't be fooled by pages and pages of search results that are just mini-vacuums like the kind I complained about at the start of this post.

Underpowered junk

Make sure to get the roller kind. In fact just add that to your search term and it seems to come up more, even though it insists on still showing electric powered ones too in the results, probably paid adverts put there by Big Suck:

Coupang results for "Roller Eraser Cleaner" (롤러 지우개 청소기)

Here's a direct link: 쿠팡이 추천하는 롤러 지우개 청소기 관련 혜택과 특가

Or look around Daiso, but I myself didn't see any like this; just the 5000 won cheapo vacuum kind that I am convinced does nothing but suck up your 5000 won. If you spot one, let me know. 

Reminder that I am unaffiliated with this product, brand, Coupang, etc. This is not a sponsored post. I have taken no money for this recommendation. Who exactly would pay a blogger to recommend an 80 cent eraser accessory anyway? 

My goal has always been to provide useful tips to the foreigners-in-Korea or foreigners-interested-in-Korea community. Since I've never seen this thing before, maybe pick some up on your next trip to Korea and improve the lives of your friends back home. Especially if they still use pencils. 

Happy rolling.