Help!!! How can I keep my house somewhat clean?
The dogs are great. They love to play together and provide my family with much enjoyment. However, I have noticed since we got Cappy, that our house is coated in a thick film of dust. The boys play outside in the yard together and sometimes come in quite muddy. I usually just keep them in the kitchen on the tile floor until they dry off. But, there is a thick layer of dust all over my downstairs. I can dust on Tuesday and my house is filthy again on Wednesday. I've been having a cleaning lady come in every two weeks but have decided it's a waste of money because the house gets dirty so quickly. I don't consider myself the most meticulous housekeeper, but this is crazy! I am spending all my time dusting. The kitchen table has to be washed before every meal, the stovetop gets dirty, my counters are constantly dirty (sometimes I see muddy pawprints on the counter and table). I have a bagless vacuum and try to use it every day. Each time I run the vacuum, the canister gets full just vacuuming the downstairs. I just can't find the time to do this everyday. I work full-time and have two children to take care of when I get home. My husband travels for work and is only home about 10 days per month. Like I said, I've had Buster for over two years and didn't notice any problems until getting Cappy a couple of months ago. Any useful ideas? I've thought about getting some kind of shoe to put on the dogs when they go outside to cut down on the dirt being tracked inside. Does anyone know where I can find something like that? I'd appreciate any feedback concerning my situation. I've being visitng the website for sometime now to read about other sheepies, but this is the first time I've felt desperate enough to actually logon and ask for advice. HELP! |
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| Have you tried an ionic pro air filter? We have one, and love to clean it out daily and see the dust and crap it has collected.
from their website: http://www.ionicpro.com/ Quote: Ionic Pro® Turbo is the most effective totally silent air purifier you can purchase. With its exclusive "Triple Action Technology", the Turbo removes contaminants and allergens from the air, including smoke, dust, pollen, pet dander, and nasty odors. It also removes germs, bacteria and viruses, such as the cold and flu viruses. Furthermore, it converts smog and ozone pollution into clean pure oxygen!
I think I am VERY anal and get told my house is super clean, but just deal with the daily wipe downs. Sorry, I can't help more. It just takes a few minutes a day when done all the time, but I don't have TWO sheepies!!!  (but i do have 2 cats) |
Get a third dog and it will make you appreciate how much less cleaning two requires. 
Just kidding (well, not really), I do understand. The dust in my place is never ending too. It seems like no matter how much I clean, the next day, there's just as much dust. I try to buy better furnace filters and change them regularly and that seems to help a little less dust from blowing around but it's still a lot. I'm going to have my air ducts cleaned to see if that helps at all because it seems like so much comes from the vents. Just be glad you have two non-shedders. The hair that comes off my little Briard mix is enough to make an extra dog each week. The OES and Komondor are the dustmongers! |
| Try living in a naturally dry, dusty climate with FIVE dogs and horse farms with no grass all around you!
First of all: 1. Simplify your household, that is no dust collecting items: books, knick-knacks, etc 2. Everything is easily washed or cleaned......don't say louvers to me. 3. Find the easiest cleaning floor for you.......we all have our favorite. 4. Get in the habit of dusting daily or learn to ignore it until your husband starts putting dates in it to see how long it takes you to notice. (Today he fessed up: he polished his brown dress shoes and had to blow off "1/2 inch of dust"). See, even he has learned to ignore it. 5. Dust covers on all furniture that can be whipped off when company comes calling. 6. Washable lamp shades 7. Don't look behind the buffet, dresser or head board. Rule I learned today: Don't sit next to the priest's kids who pick your dog's hairs off their clothes (it must have jumped over to them). And when they show the hairs to you, calmly take them and put them back on your sweater and thank them for finding the missing hair. |
| I'm thinking that maybe a load of woodchips or bark mulch is an answer... maybe in a portion of the yard and subdivide it, so you can set the dogs outside into that area?
Maybe even a nice layer of gravel? It can get hosed down so that if dirt ever comes up it can be hosed back down? Just thinking. |
| Gravel works wonders outside in areas, keep their feet dry and mud off them and you can hose it down and not have that area saturated with water and turning muddy when it rains. Also in Summer it keeps the dust away, fall, the collection of twigs, leaves etc etc from being dragged into the house also. Keeps there grubby paws cleaner.
I have a gravel run area for that and when the weather is crappy, well they can go out and play in there and also potty and no mess being dragged back into the house.
Inside, well some sort of plug in airfreshner is good, half the time we are use to the doggie smell, but when non dog friends visit  Works wonders.
And throw rugs over furniture in a room the dogs are in, means also when people come, you can whip them off quickly. Also easier to throw them into the washing machine, then trying to get marks off the furniture. |
| I know what you mean, Sometimes when I get home from work at night I sit on the couch and watch the "tumbleweed" blow by. I have 3 sheepies, I do have hard would floors, so it isn't bad cleaning them. The dust some days you could write your name in it. I try to divide the cleaning up in a couple days time, It has helped alot. Does anyone use one of them swiffer wet jets? |
| Most pet supply catalogs have dog boots, but putting them off frequently is a pain in the rear..........
Covering the dirt helps. As mentioned gravel or bark helps. You can help prevent it from sinking into mud below by putting a weed barrier fabric underneath. Make sure drainage areas are away from usual sheepdog areas (are there any?). Paving or grass is the ultimate answer. You could wipe them down when they come in.....if you can catch them. Have them wait at the door and use a spray bottle and a quick towel wipe. I have mats outside and mats inside........when it snows I have towels and old sheets .......but for me it's a loosing battle because our climate is so dusty.....of course my guys get dusty. |
Joahaeyo wrote: Have you tried an ionic pro air filter? We have one, and love to clean it out daily and see the dust and crap it has collected.
from their website: http://www.ionicpro.com/ I was just telling my husband that I was so sick of wiping and dusting every 2 days that we need a new electronic air cleaner. The one we have now is broken. He checked our furnace filters and said they were fine, so I told him that they obviously we not doing the job, if they were clean and the the air is so dirty. Maybe this is the answer for us...Do you just set it up in the main room? |
| Our dogpark in Philly was covered in fine gravel. It was great for keeping them from being muddy, but Maggie always came home with a coat full of grey gravel dust and it would shake off her like Pigpen all over my house. Everyone always used to complain about the gravel for that reason. |
Sheepieboss you crack me up 
Re dirt, I have dogs, I learned to live with a certain amount of dirt. I sweep and wash floors daily, dust weekly. *shrug* |
| I sure can sympathize. My vac gets filled up just doing the livingroom/dining combo and we have tile in the rest that I sweep almost daily. I get depressed if it's dirty.
One thing that works better in my house is when I dust I do it with a moist rag and more dust gets picked up that way versus dry dusting. Since we are in the desert too. Also, are you're kids at any age where they like to help around the house? Maybe they could help with the dusting?  OK, didn't think so.
I'm curious about those air purifiers too. But the only ones I have seen actually make the air "smell" an unusual smell. Oh well, sounds like we are all having the same problem. So at least you are in good company. Welcome btw. |
| Sheepieboss, yes. I'm not sure how much, if at all, it reduces dust because I've had it on for the most part since we moved here. I turn it off every night. I do know that my husband always feel like the air is icky and a little itchy (cats) when it's not on (and he says this to me not knowing it hasn't been on for a few days).
We got it because everyone else WITH Allergies to all kinds of things used it in their office and at home. They all swear by it. I do not have allergies to dust, etc... so what do I know. |
Valerie wrote: Our dogpark in Philly was covered in fine gravel. It was great for keeping them from being muddy, but Maggie always came home with a coat full of grey gravel dust and it would shake off her like Pigpen all over my house. Everyone always used to complain about the gravel for that reason. Use 3/8" gravel instead.. that won't be producing too much gravel dust. Get "river gravel" for nice rounded smooth edges (I think -- I'm not a maven on this stuff) |
SheepieBoss wrote: Rule I learned today:
Don't sit next to the priest's kids who pick your dog's hairs off their clothes (it must have jumped over to them). And when they show the hairs to you, calmly take them and put them back on your sweater and thank them for finding the missing hair. ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My only suggestion is BOOTS, Tasker wears boots when it is wet and muddy or even very snow, it does cut down on the amount of stuff tracked in. |
| First ..How wonderful that you have a new rescue!! I have 4 dogs and an occasional foster or two. I have 2 labs (shedding machines!!) and a German shepherd dog (sheds like crazy too) and then my Guinness. We also heat on very cold days with pellett stoves. My house always has dust and hair and I have learned to live with it and most of my friends and neighbors have learned the ways of the dog people!! BUT I do have a gated area , my living room and dining room. The dust and hair still travel!! I use those kitchen wipes in a plastic container and have a swiffer of sorts to use. We too have to wipe up before and after a meal !! I still enjoy my dogs and many times strangers look at my cloths and can tell I have dogs and sometimes what breed. One of my doctors has labs and when she saw my socks (had a yellow dog hair ) pulled her clog off and said I have labs too!!! I hope you don't let this get in the way of enjoying your dogs I just don't have an answer. I wish you luck and if you find an answer we all would like to hear it!!! |
At our other house we had 3/4" gravel in the dog run. That saved LOTS of dirt from being brought into the house. In the play yard we had pea gravel(river rock) that was good but hubby had to rinse it before installing it....it came with lots of dirt  . If where you are has snow....it is better to get the 3/4" gravel...the pea gravel stuck to the dogs paws in snow and then it was brought into the house  The 3/4" gravel is also a less expensive gravel to get. Just hose it down a few times to clean it before the dogs go out on it.
In this house we chose patio stones in the dog run instead of the gravel because our OES/Wheaton is a digger....she can't dig the patio stones up And it is MUCH cleaner than the stones or grass. And easily cleaned up as well.
When my dogs go to play in the yard (its all grass or mud) and I have 3 dogs...yes sometimes we have to wash the floor after they have come in. They get really dirty in the grass. I never noticed dust on the kitchen table...but then again it is washed before every use anyway. |
Joahaeyo wrote: Sheepieboss, yes. I'm not sure how much, if at all, it reduces dust because I've had it on for the most part since we moved here.
Leanne, if you do not have dust all over everything in your house, and do not have to dust every 2 days, I would say it works. By dust I mean, damp cloth. I don't use a "duster" as all that does is put it back into the air. Maybe we will get one and try it, as Don has no problem returning stuff if it doesn't ...not like me.. |
| Hi Linda!
So glad Cappy has worked his way into your family's hearts.  He's a lucky boy to have found you... and he's such a sweetie!
Part of our dust problem this year has been due to the lack of frozen ground. Right now our yard is mud and of course, it gets dragged into the house and dries to dust. We do have a dust filter that helps a lot. You may need a few of them as your house is much larger. As badly as I hate cold weather, I'd take frozen ground over this muck any day. I wouldn't be so fast to mulch or gravel any part of your yard. Gravel is dusty and mulch sticks to shaggy feet and tends not to fall off until inside the house. Your lawn is to die for... but is still new and may take some time to get established. Hope the "boys" aren't making a big mess of it in this weather. Glad to see you back on the forum! Nita |
Quote: One of my doctors has labs and when she saw my socks (had a yellow dog hair ) pulled her clog off and said I have labs too!!!
That has happened to me! Not labs but sheepers and Pyrs. I ignore the hair in the clogs but the salesman "kindly" pointed it out to me. I prefer to think of it as extra insulation. |
| Hey Everyone
Well I knew it my invention of a dog paw print flooring would be a hit...ha ha!  Should I ever market it ..can imagine that dog lovers everywhere would rave about the flooring as you couldn't tell the new muddy paw prints and the permanent ones !!! LOL
I sympathetize with your plight as I also have two sheepies and LabX who sheds like crazy. I ripped up all my carpeting and installed laminate which has helped a lot..makes for easier cleaning. I'm also thinking of getting an air purifier as I purchased one for my sons and did a bit of research on them first. The ones with the Hepa filters are supposedly good. I have a muddy back yard at the moment as I live in the rainy Pacific Northwest and wouldn't mind gravel. Bark mulch is a pain!! It sticks to the dogs coat. Good luck to you! Marianne and the boys |
| Marianne! Computer back on? Better check the clock on it.......you are running a few hours ahead......or there's a time warp. Isn't Monday.......yet.
Air cleaners.....do they work? What do you recommend? |
| The best way of keeping the house clean is to hire a housekeeper..
Molly never leaves the house without her boots on, it is the best way of keeping the floor clean, and when the floor is clean the dust isn’t showing so much….  |
| Maybe the animals aren't the culprits at all....if your duct work is leaking, then all of your insulation could be spitting down into your house. Get your ducts checked, and then also call a duct cleaning company to come clean them out for you, whether they are leaking or not. This should help a lot! |
| I look at it this way... I have a dog, a large, long haired one at that. When he goes out it doesn't matter what I do, stuff and lots of it will becoming back in with him. I pick it up, sweep, vacuum, etc. When I get to the other side of the house and think ok thats done, I turn and there is Obe sitting nicely with remnants of outside all over him. Not to mention a trail of where he had been since I started cleaning.
Sometimes it gets frustrating but then look at Obe and tell him what a good boy he is. What do you do? |
| I've got 3 dogs, 3 cats, a rabbit and laminate floors: the dust bunnies roll through this house like tumbleweeds in an old Western movie.
But I recently found the answer, the miracle cure: iRobot Roomba! I run my robotic vacuum cleaner (his name is Jeeves) every day, and no more dust bunnies, way less dust/dirt generally and my allergies are better. I Jeeves!
I sound like an ad .... but no really, I don't work for iRobot, just wanted to share my small miracle  |
| Those Dust Bunnies breed like crazy. I just moved the fridge and freezer and cleaned underneath (WELL OVERDUE FOR THAT) and those Dust bunnies have been breeding like crazy under there.
With the amount I removed from underneath I could of knitted a sweater with the collection |
Quote: The dust some days you could write your name in it.
As my aunt says...you can write in the dust, just don't date it! We too have 2 Sheepies, 2 cats and 3 children. Dust and the great outdoors that come in on the pets are just part of our lives. We have laminate and tile floors down stairs. I rarely even put the vacuum cleaner away as I use it at least daily, if not 2 to 3 times. It is much easier when they are shaved. It's just part of our lives having fuzzy dogs. Glad to hear the Ionic Breezers help. I just pulled ours back out and are going to give them a try again. |
| i have 4 german sheperds who are now 7 years old. i have been vacuuming them with my little hoover tank since they were little. i bought a plastic dog grooming vacuum part from a place that fixes and sells used vacuums. or you can go on line. you would not believe how this cuts down on the dust they cause all over the house. when they were about a year old i bought a metro vac&blow grooming vacuum. the girl who sold me this told me when she went to dog grooming school they learned on this vacuum. she also told me to empty out the bag every time you used it on a dog. helps save money. i empty mine after vacuuming each dog and you would not believe the hair and the dead skin this vacuum takes off. they also feel so clean afterwards. and you will also see a big difference in your house. you should really do this a couple times a week until you can determine if you can do it less or more. while i am vacuuming them i run a 20 inch box fan with a furnace filter on the back of the fan. this is pulling any dog hair or dust that ends up in the air into the filter. i buy the kind that can be washed. this way i can vacuum the filter to clean that. i don't wash it because i tried once and it became really floppy. also, if you just run this box fan with the filter on it for about 20 minutes in a room you can feel the difference in the air quality. the air actually feels cleaner. its a lot of work but less than vacuuming all the time. i also noticed in the fall when leaves are falling, there is alot more dust, which i know comes from the dead leaves. doing alot of gardening i read about leaf mold. and the dust in the house is worse if i don't keep up with the vacuuming and running of the box fan. |
| our 4 sheperds have their own set of towels. we lay them out starting on the enclosed porch and into the kitchen where they enter the house. by the time they walk through the kitchen their feet require little or no wiping. sometimes we spritz them with a spray bottle to just dampen them. this has been working for 7 years. |
| I dust certain areas of my house every damn day! Am I allowed to say that? The table being one! You all know I have 3 kids and 3 dogs so no one moves slow in here. O.k. and lets not forget I take care of my dying mother....They all travel with poofs behind them because no one can just walk, they all thump to some degree. My mom well she is pushing an IV stand or a walker or grabbing something for stability. I will never be overweight because I bend over constantly to pick up the tumbleweed off the wood floor. Supposedly Skye is the only dog I have that sheds and based on the brushing I do everyday that IS the case however with all the shenanigans that go on in here each dog takes turns pulling the hair off the other. My house is one big huge fat window so I see dust flying all over the place all day long. I have my filters changed every 3 months by a technician. I have ultraviolet lights in my furnaces for sanitation purposes. I have my ducts cleaned once a year. My mom is very ill, my kids go to 3 different schools and my oldest son and I are allergic to dust. I have taken every precaution to prevent illness and be clean. Hahahahaha! About the best thing I have found is windex. Pledge and oil based products like it seem to attract more dust and hair. I know it isn't good for all my wood so there are some things I can't use it on but I do use it on my cheap wood figuring I didn't pay that much for it anyway. Some wood isn't really wood to begin with and it can take it. Older heirloom type stuff need to stick with furniture polish but otherwise forget it. I have a ton of marble in my house, I use the marble cleaner once - get a nice thick coat of it on and then use windex the next three times. If it helps, People who know me - know I am obsessed with my kids and my dogs. They also comment on how clean my house is. I don't point out that my blinds have 3 inches of dust on them! I just don't adjust them when I have company!!!!! I am almost positive no one notices the things you notice. OOOHHH, The other thing I do is try to shut some doors. Especially if you are gone for part of the day. Keep them out of a room or 2. If nothing else it will look just as it did when you left but maybe it will keep the activity level to a dull roar and keep the dust down. I try to shut my bedroom door otherwise they all get in my bed and I end up making it 4 times a day. UGH. I love when I walk in the door and my bed is still nice and smooth and my pillows are right where I left them even if the couch has been moved half way across the living room! Just think once you figure this out you can get another puppy! |
| Xanax,,,then you just don't care.... |
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