I talked about keeping the furballs’ things organized here, but then there’s the issue of cleaning. Chaos’s fur is so fine and short it’s like he doesn’t even shed and although Orion’s is medium length and fluffy, it doesn’t really show up in the house. Even though Ares has short fur, it’s coarse and he does shed moderately. Piper’s white fur is just everywhere. It’s funny because my place is actually cleaner now than before I had all these furry kids. When I lived in my apartment with just Piper it may have been less messy without toys and blankets everywhere but it wasn’t as clean. And that’s kind of embarrassing. Now I have a routine in place to keep the fur and dirt in check and not lose my mind in the process (or maybe I already have??). Sometimes I do feel like my head is spinning and there is a never ending To Do list. When it seems overwhelming I remember that some things can wait. My lifestyle does not allow for my house to ever be spotless but I’m okay with mostly clean. This is how my fur-filled home stays, well, mostly clean.
The kitchen counters are wiped down and the floor swept every single day. Kitties walk on the counters and food is prepared there so they get dirty all the time. I keep a container of Lysol Dual Action cleaning wipes on hand and grab one each evening before bedtime. I love these because they are easy. You don’t need any cleaner because they are already soaked in antibacterial solution and, at least for my kitchen, I just need one. One side is rough to loosen anything that is stuck to the countertop and the other side can be used for wiping. After the counters are clean I grab the broom and sweep the kitchen and laundry room floors. The laundry room is attached to the kitchen and that’s where the kitty litter boxes are. A little litter comes out with them every time they use the box so I like to make sure I don’t leave any of it on the ground. I’m a KY girl who likes to walk around barefoot and I DO NOT want that on the bottom of my feet. Doing these two things is not only necessary for health reasons but it takes maybe 5 minutes if I do it every day.
The entertainment center and dining table and chairs are dark wood. They happen to be places higher off the ground so of course the kitties like to lounge on them. Piper is the worst culprit because she has the long white fur and it shows up everywhere. We also have a wooden coffee table that doesn’t actually show all the hair but we eat there a lot so we definitely don’t want fur there. I like to use Method multi-surface cleaner when I wipe down the furniture. It smells great and is natural and non-toxic so it won’t hurt a certain black and white dog who get curious of things he likes the smell of.
Last year all the carpet except in the 2 bedrooms was ripped out and wood flooring went in. Of course it’s a darker cherry color that I love but shows the little furry tumbleweeds that collect in the corners seemingly overnight. My mom bought this beautiful area rug for the living room area which helps to hide of the fur floating around but the floors still need to be vacuumed regularly. That’s where the Bissell pet hair vacuum, the monster from Chaos’s nightmares, comes in. There are different settings for the level of carpet all the way down to bare floor. It also has this great attachment for pulling fur off the barstool seats so that it can be sucked up off the navy blue fabric (which again, shows all that white fur). Vacuuming all the floors and carpet is done about once a week, sometimes twice if it’s shedding season. The back bedroom where the dogs’ crates are gets vacuumed more frequently if Chaos’s allergies are acting up. He has now decided the vacuum isn’t evil and it doesn’t scare him so bad he peeds, but he’s still cautious around it, like it may turn on him at any moment. We use the Swiffer in between to quickly swipe any stray tumbleweeds in the corners. The pads are disposal so they just get thrown away once the hair has overtaken them.
Our condo is on the first floor so our back door walks out to a patio and then a large grassy area. When we let the dogs out to do their business we make sure to keep wipes nearby and a towel in case it’s muddy or they step in something. This also goes for after we come back from a walk. It can be a pain to wipe off 8 paws every time but it cuts down on a lot of dirt and who knows what other stuff they might otherwise bring into the place. It’s a simple thing we can do to save ourselves more time spent cleaning it up later.
This is just the gist of it. We all have different schedules and different ideas of what we consider clean. I don’t have enough time to spend it all cleaning and I wouldn’t want to anyway. I’ll trade relaxing with the kids or taking a walk for worrying about the hairs I can see on the shelf any day. While we make sure nothing is ever too dirty or fur covered, we mostly just try our best to keep it decent. When you live in a condo with 4 furry pets, there’s always going to be hair somewhere. The furniture doesn’t always get wiped down every week. Sometimes it might go 2 weeks before it’s done again but really, it doesn’t make much difference. A few minutes after that surface is hair free, it won’t be anymore. For us, it’s important to keep things clean, but you probably won’t ever be able to eat off the floor, if you know what I mean.
How do you keep things clean in a furry home?
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