Thursday, April 4, 2013

DoggyStyle: Spring Cleaning with Dogs

Mr. B helps spring-clean by putting away his snowman stuffy.
I know so many people assume if you have dogs it's harder to keep things clean, though I've realized just the opposite.
Embarrassingly enough, before I had Miss M I never cleaned.
It was so easy to put things off.
And completely surprising to see the dirt accumulate.
It's only since having the pups that I've had a greater awareness of keeping things clean. And I've developed routines! We wrote about our fall-cleaning routine, this is what we do for spring:

Cleaning at the Dogs' Level
Since our pups are so much lower to the ground, we don't really notice the dirt and smudges as much. I've set aside spring for the time to go over the walls and doors with the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I also make sure to clean the nose smudges off the window (I'm always forgetting to do this!).

Leash & Coat Cleaning and Storage
We don't have a choice, and we need to walk our pups several times a day, we have developed quite the cheery arsenal for being outside in bad weather. We have some seasonal leash and collar sets that we trade out during the season. I never knew how to clean the leashes, and I was hesitant to put them in our washer, so I just started cleaning them using a big jar, adding detergent and shaking (this is how I wash my delicates too!). We just hang them to dry. We wash the pups' coats before storing them away by washing them inside-out on the delicate cycle and air-drying them. Our coats and snoods are put away and we take down their raincoats.

Preventative Measures
We've realized doing a couple of small things every day helps us from feeling overwhelemed by cleaning. We've learned to use fish-oil to decrease the amount of shedding, use wipes on a daily basis to decrease the mud and dust that is tracked in, and set expectations so we don't have a lot of cleaning. We wrote more about it, here.

What are some extra spring cleaning steps you have with your pups?

Also:
We also love doing this.
A bit more evidence of my cleaning problem.  And here.

8 comments:

Hannah@Eriesistibull said...

" I also make sure to clean the nose smudges off the window (I'm always forgetting to do this!)." -- Me too! I always get in the car with a guest to realize there are nose smudges ALL OVER!!

Thanks for the tip on the collars and leashes! I hated the thought of them being ruined in the washer, but this is great!

We're super lucky and have a great backyard, so now that the snow has melted (and hopefully stays that way...) we will go out and do some major cleaning: making sure nothing has blown in over the winter, especially things that could be harmful for the pooches; checking the fence for any weak spots; filling in holes caused by critters to prevent injuries; and seeding the grass where we have a few bald spots!

Two French Bulldogs said...

Great tips. Mom gives us 100% coconut oil into food to help with stinkies
Snuggles,
Benny & Lily

Toughie said...

I love your blog! And your dogs :D You have definitely inspired me to focus on my dogs' training. And reminded me that I need to clean the windows...
Cheers!
Trudy and Rocco and Royston

Anonymous said...

I've never really known how to clean a leash either, I love your jar idea!

I'm curious though, do you use a certain type of wipes for the pups feet?

Two Pitties in the City said...

@adventuresofadogmom, we just use standard antibacterial handwipes. We figure that if it's safe for kids it will be ok for our pups.

Brenda said...

Haven't stopped by in awhile, been too overwhelmed with work to do any blogging. But after taking a bit of time off this week, I am enjoying playing catch up with some of my favorite blogs. Your place always looks like a page right out of a magazine! It's beautiful.... now we know how you keep it that way. I need to set aside some time for spring cleaning. It's usually all I can do just to stay on top of a week's worth of hair every weekend.

Shauna (Fido and Wino) said...

I didn't know fish oil helped with shedding... I should try that on Kayloo!

liliana876 said...

I attempted to wipe our dogs' paws at one point, but with 5 dogs it was too much time/work. It is best to just sweat or vacuum either daily or every other day :)

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