How To Keep Your House Clean With Pets

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I have dogs. Two BIG Bernese mountain dogs. And three cats! Dogs can STINK! Grace in particular gets a nice sour smell in the summer after swimming in Lake Ontario. It isn’t known to be the cleanest lake around…

And of course, if you are a dog lover you likely have tried to have ground rules on who’s allowed (and not allowed) on the couch…and the bed…and the chair…and at the dining table…If you have carpet, dog beds, rugs…all of this can absorb the odor from your dogs. You may be “nose blind” to the smell but your visitors crinkling their noses when they step through your door.

Lingering Odors

Even items such as dog and cat toys, bones and food can all leave lingering odors in your house. With five animals (not including my eleven year old daughter), having a house that doesn’t smell like dog (or cat) is important to me. I also don’t want to be mopping my floors several times a day though either…

All of my animals also shed! Profusely! They have definitely kept me on my toes but I have learned some tips along the way to keep your house looking and smelling clean!

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Hair Control

Keeping up with my furry and ever shedding crew can be quite the challenge! I found I was sweeping multiple times a day to keep the dog and cat hair. Otherwise it would form rather formidable sized hairballs that would tumble through the house any time you walked anywhere! But sweeping simply was not enough in my case. There would end up being balls of hair rolling behind the broom and I could never get all of them!!

Get The Right Vacuum

Vacuuming is pretty much the way to go for me. I have a Bissel pet vacuum that I LOVE! It comes with attachments to clean upholstery and it can even get the long, fine white fur of Whiskers off surfaces! It does a great job of getting ALL the hair!

Carrying it up and down the stairs can be a bit cumbersome, but overall I am really happy with this one! The canister is very easy to empty. I find it works MUCH better than a much pricier option in stores. That only worked for two years…I have had this one for many years and it is always up to the challenge!

Vacuum Your Pet!

Grace also LOVES to be vacuumed! Benson isn’t so sure, but he tolerates it! If you can work with your dog at a young age to get them used to being vacuumed, this can be a great way to get the hair directly from the source and helps to keep your floors cleaner! My mom had a cat who even liked to be vacuumed…

For the main floor of my house, I am now giving serious consideration to a Roomba. These seem to be a very popular option with other Bernese owners which scores high points with me since I know how much they shed!!

Don’t worry, I will definitely let you know how it goes although I can already imagine Grace attacking it (or just letting it bump into her bottom) and Benson will more than likely be scared of it! (Read more on Benson the Scaredy Cat here!). I’m imagining some pretty funny video clips…And then the cats, not even sure what they will think…

Brushing

Brushing your pet often will also help to capture any excess hair before it hits the floor! All of my animals come running when I bust out the brush and I have to take turns on each of them. It takes me some time, but definitely saves me from extra work on the floors and keeps my house cleaner!

Having dogs with undercoats, I use an undercoat rake which does a GREAT job pulling the dead undercoat from my dogs. I don’t use it as often on them as I do the regular brushes (always after a bath though) as the blades can cut their fur if it is used too much. Brushing my dogs 2-3x a week does a good job cutting down on what ends up on my floors!

Mud and Dirt

What dog doesn’t love to roll around in some mud??? Regular readers will know the story of how I tried (and failed) at growing grass and had a giant mud pit for a backyard for many months. Any time they would go out, they would track dirt back into the house. And I always dreaded when it rained or when the snow would thaw…My house was wall to wall mud! Literally, it was on the walls from when they walked by them and rubbed on them…

Investing in a couple good absorbent door mats helped this considerably! I couldn’t do too much about the water, but I was amazed at how much of the dirt and mud it managed to grab off their feet! Usually I try to be diligent about wiping their feet. However, their patience is considerably less than I would like it to be. By the time the second paw was done they were usually wrestling out of my grasp.

Wrestling with a wet Bernese Mountain dog (or any other wet dog) is no easy feat! If you have tried you know exactly what I am talking about! There are some great washable options available if you love rugs as well.

Feeding Areas

My dogs and cats are MESSY eaters (and drinkers!). The cats always seem to throw food all over the place somehow from their bowls! And my dogs drop it on the floor while they are eating it and seemingly forget about it once it hits the floor. When the dogs drink, a considerable amount ends up outside their mouths rather than in!

There are feeders that you can buy that help contain some of the mess! You can also find bowls with non slip mats around them or ridges that catch any kibble that might be dropped. Take a look at ones that are enclosed to keep the mess to a minimum as well!

To protect my beautiful hardwood floors from the water I ended up buying one of those hard plastic floor coverings that people put under office chairs! It’s tough so it stands up to the dog’s claws and attention. I had tried a few other waterproof mats. In my experience, they bunched up, held the water on them and got destroyed really easily. I am really happy with the option I have now though, and it’s a breeze to wipe clean!

Uh Oh’s and Accidents

You have a pet. Whether it be a dog or a cat, accidents can and do happen! My cats vomit about once a day. And ALWAYS where I seem to step on it! The bottom of the stairs seems to be a particular favorite…My dogs, although house trained, also have accidents from time to time. There was a period after Benson got fixed that I would wake up to a main floor full of surprises…Poor guy really doesn’t handle any amount of stress well.

After using regular paper towel forever, during the Great Toilet Paper and Paper Towel Frenzy during the first round of lockdowns, I couldn’t find paper towels ANYWHERE. And I was running dangerously low if the dogs had another bout of diarrhea in the house overnight…

What I did manage to find were the ones that you find in public bathrooms that come on the giant rollers. And guess what…these worked AMAZING! They don’t get “mushy” and soggy like regular paper towels and are MUCH tougher so you have less of a risk of sticking your fingers in something you really don’t want to! And they work great on windows and cupboards as well since they don’t leave any fuzz behind! I always have these in my house now if I can find them.

Oh The SMELL!

Dogs and cats and unpleasant odors come hand in hand. And sometimes the odor simply seems to permeate into just about everything! Especially if your dog, like my Gracie, loves to jump up on the couch after being in the lake…

Bathing your dogs regularly keeps them smelling fresh and clean! You don’t want to use shampoo too often as it can dry out their skin, but even a rinse can be a great way to remove dirt and keep it from ending up on the floor! We go to the beach every day and a quick rinse before we come in the house keeps some of the sand from coming in.

Febreeze fabric spray works GREAT at getting the smell out of cloth surfaces! I use it on their couches, the door mats, dining chairs…it’s a great way to give the smell in your house a little boost! Don’t spray too much on though, or your surface will be wet for a very long time after…as my daughter learned…but hey my pants smelled great for the rest of the day!

Pet beds can be another source of smell, so be sure to buy one that is easily washable or wipes off easily. I have made this mistake…And when Benson was a puppy he thought the doggy bed was the PERFECT place to go potty so I threw a few beds out that were not easily washed.

Candles and plug in air fresheners smell great, but I don’t use them in my house. I would have to keep them very high up to avoid a tail or two being singed, and my cats are OBSESSED with candles and I don’t want them burning their paws or whiskers. And the plug-in air fresheners, while smelling nice, were the cause of a fire that burned down my Dad’s home so I stay away from those now!

Air fresheners that don’t need to be plugged in can be a good choice. I also have a diffuser for essential oils that I use but you have to be careful with these as well as some of the oils are toxic to dogs and cats. Sprinkling baking soda on surfaces before vacuuming can also help cut down on odors and is great at helping keep kitty litter smells to a minimum.

DIY Deodorant For Dogs

Of my two dogs, Grace in particular can get a nice stink going, especially on a hot summer day! There were a few days last week that she smelled so bad you caught a whiff of her before you actually saw her come into a room…I couldn’t bathe her because she was on drops for an ear infection, but man did she smell!

Buying odor deodorizers to spray on your dog can be an option, but you can also whip one up yourself pretty easily! They do a nice job masking the smell until bath time…Fill a spray bottle 3/4 full of warm water and you can add a few drops of lavender or rosemary essential oils. Not too much though or the smell can be overpowering! You can also add a small amount of coconut oil or witch hazel.

Start in small amounts to be sure that your dog doesn’t have a reaction to the mixture and speak with your vet about it first. You can also use this spray to freshen surfaces! But take some caution with essential oils because some can be toxic for your pet. To learn more about the risks of essential oils read the AKC’s article on it here.

Do you have any other tips for keeping your house clean when you own pets? Let us know by dropping a comment below! And be sure to sign up for our newsletter for more tips!