Five ways to reduce dirt and fur in your pet-friendly home

I love the furry, four-paw members of my family but I can do without the mud tracked in from outside, the fur balls hacked up on my floor, or my biggest pet peeve–pet fur/oils/dirt on my floors and baseboards.

So how do I deal with this?

I don’t. Well, I do, but in a preventative maintenance way. Instead of wasting time vacuuming daily or following Richard the cat around with a bottle of cleaning solution to wipe every baseboard that he claims as his own, I’ve learned to reduce the risk of potential occurrence. Meaning, by limiting the amount of time or exposure my animals get to each area, I minimize the AMOUNT (key word) of dirt, dust, bodily fluids (or solids) that can accumulate in my home.

But how, Monica?

By putting those pets outside or in a cage … Okay, I’m [half] joking about that cage. I love my fur babies so of course I want them to live the life of leisure, comfort, and relaxation that they are accustomed to living.  But after a ton of effort and a few dog training classes, I have implemented the following changes.

Divide the Yard

Now, I know some people will say, “You are paying for ALL your space so you should enjoy ALL of it!” To that I say, by installing a gate/fence in my backyard to divide the yard between dog vs. people areas, I am enjoying ALL of my space and my pets have their own space to enjoy. The dog poop is now contained to the dog section of my yard, away from our swimming pool.  We can swim in the pool without experiencing that fresh poop smell every time we come up for air.

In addition, I’ve installed a doggie door (which is frequently dirty around the edges and contributes to dust drifting into the house)^[1] that leads to the dog yard. Now, they only access the people yard when we want them to. Yippee!

Close doors when not in use

A simple solution. Closing all doors to rooms when not in use or when you leave home means less access. Less access = less mess.

Sorry Richard, no more coughing up fur-balls on my Ugg boots!

Train cats to use the doggie door

Yep, even my cats use the doggie door. They  usually sleep in the backyard during the day and come in around dinnertime. That means most of the shedding, body waste-relieving, and fur-ball hacking occurs outside. That’s great news for me!

Wipe paws

Okay. I know this sounds a bit over the top and time consuming. But at my house, we take our shoes off before entering our home. I feel that shoes accumulate many horrible things throughout the day and I don’t want the stuff clinging to my soles contaminating my home. Like shoes, my pets paws accumulate a bunch of germ-filled stuff. So I wipe my pet’s paws before entering our home when it makes sense.

I’m not obsessed with paw wiping. But certain weather conditions, walks near construction areas, and even returning from dog parks (just ask your veterinarian about the germs at dog parks) are good cause for a wipe down with a damp cloth. My dogs and cats are used to it and have grown to expect it.

Train that Puppy

After witnessing Ivy’s steel jaws and razor teeth destroying the corners of my baseboards, I knew it was only a matter of time until Ivy moved on to couches and table legs. I had to put a stop to this immediately.

So off to puppy training class we went. By the first class, Ivy was “heeling and sitting” at command. Although those were great commands to learn, they weren’t going to save my baseboards. But I knew “off” and “leave it” would.  Not only was I excited to see her master these commands, I swear that every sock, table leg, and shoe breathed a sigh of relief, too. Using those commands frequently while at home and crating her when were are gone helps contain the fur in one area, which equates to less vacuuming for me.

It works for me

So far, the above methods have greatly reduced the amount of time I spend tidying  and cleaning up after my pets. But these are just some ways–there are many more.

What are some of the time-saving tricks you use to tidy-up after pets?

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^[1] I will deal with this issue in a future post.