How I Keep My Home Clean With Big Dogs (& little kids)

You all know that commercial where they the lady is swishing around a mop and saying that the last thing she wants to do at the end of a long day is wash a floor? I used to laugh at that commercial, thinking who on earth is cleaning their floors each and every night? Maybe when I was in my 30's, but as I near my 60's, I snorted at the idea.

Well...guess what I have started doing after the dogs go to bed for the night? Yep. How nuts is that, eh? But hear me out, with big dogs, doing a little bit each day is the key to keeping the house clean. It can get crazy dirty, real fast if you don't stay on top of it.

Dogs and Kids - I've been a big dog momma for 20 years with English Mastiffs, and now a Saint Bernard momma, too. Big dogs (Hemingway is 240lbs and Berkeley is 160) track in a whole lot of dirt and mess with those massive paws, especially in spring and fall when the ground is wet. The one good things about snow is that there is less dirt coming in.

These dogs drool, slobber, sling stuff on the walls, shed like mad, and track in dirt. Best dogs ever, though, so totally worth it.

This post applies if you have kids, too, though. They also make window art, wall smudges, and spill on rugs...

Here's how to easily have a clean house with big dogs, and kids, too.

Floors- I've started to do a quick wash of the floors each evening before I go to bed. After the coffee pot is set for morning, the dogs have done their outside business and gone to bed, I give the floors a quick onceover so they are fresh for the following day.

The other day, I walked in the house and thought, wow, the house smells lovely. No dog smell, no cooking smells, the house just had that freshly cleaned fresh scent. The fact that my house (currently holding 3 dogs and 1 cat) smells this nice when I open the door... well, I cannot even begin to tell you how happy I am.

I don't have a whole lot of floors to wash as we have rugs everywhere. My Hemingway is afraid of floors so we have a rug in each room, and a couple runners going down the hallway, too, so it takes me less than 10 minutes to wash the entire upper floor.

I use two different floor washes, whichever one suits my fancy that day. They are both mildly scented, smell nice, safe for all types of flooring, and environmentally friendly. You can get both at Well.ca (this is not a plug, I just know that they sell both there).

The first one, my favourite of them all, is Mint Floor Wash. (they have a sale on till Nov 19th!) Only takes a small dollop in a bucket of water, is very lightly scented, smells so very, very nice. It's my most favourite of all.

To buy this at a bricks and mortar shop, you need to reside on the west coast. It is sold in specialty gift shops on Vancouver Island and the mainland. If you live near there, google up the nearest shop to get some from. In Nanaimo, they carry it at Island-ish. The rest of us need to go through well.ca or 'MINT'. Try some of their other products, as well, you will love them all. I have the floor wash and the dish soap, and really want the laundry soap.

The other one I use regularly is Mrs. Meyer's Lemon Verbena Multi-Surface Cleaner. It comes in other scents, as well, but this is my favourite. I have a thing for citrus. Mrs Meyer's also has a counter spray, window cleaner, all the things... and I use all of those things ; ) You can get this product at London Drugs or Canadian Tire, on-line, or, buy it from Amazon and have it come right to your door.

I just found out that they have some new scents out, too, that I am excited to trial. Like apple cider counter top cleaner, orange clove handsoap, and rosemary dish soap, and most importantly, this glass cleaner for all those nose prints. Apple cider and rosemary sound so wonderful, sound clean, eh? Orange clove? Well, that sounds perfect for the holiday season.

Rugs - So, if my floors are a mess from slobber, slingers, dirt, hair, and who knows what from these big beasties, you might be wondering what I do about keeping my rugs clean?

I wash them in the laundry machine. Yep. All of them. The rugs in the sitting room, the doormats, the runners, everything.

We have several rugs I interchange regularly for the sitting room. There is also a small runner by the door, minimizing how much bare floor Hemi needs to walk on ; )

I have found the most fabulous rugs that are non-skid, no rug pads needed. They are pretty, come in all sorts of colours and sizes, are affordable, but best of all... they are machine washable! No more dragging out the carpet cleaner, though I have one for my living room rug (I try to dissuade the dogs from going on that one). All the others get tossed in the washing machine 2 to 4 times a month. Yes, sometimes I wash them weekly!

I know you all are thinking I am off my rocker now, but as I like clean, it is a necessity with these dogs. I swear, I work harder now keeping the house clean with dogs than I did with little kids, when I was fit and able! Now, I don't want you to start thinking you'll get a cat instead, hah, big dogs are worth every bit of it and life is a breeze now that I've found these rugs!

These fabulous rugs come in all sizes, but the biggest one I can buy to fit my washer is the 5'x7'. If you have a larger machine, or a top loader, you may be able to go bigger. If I wanted a larger rug in the sitting room, I could always place 2 rugs side by side as the rubber grippy on the back keeps them from moving about.

Hemingway is afraid of all bare floors, be it tile, wood, vinyl. We have a few sets of hallway runners so we can change the colours out for the seasons. These are my new runners for winter that I just got in. This colour says warm and cosy.

As these rugs are so affordable that I now use them out on the deck, too. Toss it in the wash, as needed. Check out this 5x7 rug.

We have a wider runner in the bathroom. Nice under foot in winter. The runners seem to be a bit more plush than the area rugs are.

The one thing I have to tell you is that these rugs are thin. They are not plush and thick, cushy under your toes. If you are looking for something cuddly underfoot, this is not what you are looking for. We wear slippers so is not a big deal for us.

If, however, you have (grand) kids that spill food and juice, spouses that spill coffee, dogs that track in dirt, or high traffic areas like front hallways, these rugs are the answer! They do not bleed or fade, just look awesome all the time. Oh, and they dry in no time at all. I usually toss them out on the deck railing but on rain days, they go in the dryer for just 20 to 30 minutes.

My son and daughter-in-law have two large dogs in a very small suite. They bought one of the Ruggables rugs and really liked it, but switched to these much less expensive ones when they saw how nice mine are.

So many patterns to choose from. I like rugs with a bit of blue and orange, like this one, or this one, but also like blues with reds. They seem to suit this house the best. And they hide a lot of dirt ; ) I use darker, redder hues in winter, switch out to lighter blues in summer.

This dark/light blue rug really suits my look. I love anything blue.

I love this machine washable blue rug.

And this one! This one would hide a lot of dirt and look so pretty.

This gorgeous rug I love so much.

I absolutely love this blue one but not sure my washer will fit a 6x8 rug, it also comes in these lovely colours called retro beige (though it is anything but beige!).

When you click on the links, you will see that the rugs come in pinks, greens, greys, reds, browns, all sorts of colours. These are just some of my personal favourites.

*As an Amazon affiliate, if you purchase an item(s) from one of the links, I get a wee small amount of money to support my blog. It does not cost you any more to purchase through my link than if you went to the link on your own : ) Huge thanks for your support.

A Good Vacuum - I vacuum once or twice a week to get up the dog hair tumbleweeds. A good vacuum is a must have. I happen to have a really good one. It sucks really well, but I hate it, so I won't recommend it, hah! You drag it behind you and it gets stuck on furniture and corners all the time. Don't get Hetty the vacuum ; )

Just know that mastiffs shed a lot, and St Bernard's shed even more. You will use the upholstery nozzle a lot to clean sofas, chairs, anything they rub against.

Walls - This mop is the bestest of best tips for washing your walls (and floors).

Mastiffs and St Bernard's are both slobbery. Have you seen the movies Beethoven and Hootch? Yeah, like that. They get slingers, they drool after drinking water/getting a treat, they rub their big ole dirty bodies against corners, shake their heads so slingers fly onto the walls... these dogs are messy. You will be washing your walls often.

I also have a grandson who likes to run his hands along the walls as he walks down the hallway, he also hangs on to walls as he turns corners. If I had emojis on the blog, I would place an 'I don't know' and a 'laughing till I'm crying' emoji here ; )

I've found that the best way to wash walls, especially if you cannot bend and stretch well, is with this spin mop from Vileda. It makes it easy to keep my walls and baseboards clean of drool, dirt, dust, and fingerprints! I have fancy schmancy baseboards with lots of grooves to catch all the dust and dirt. If it would not cost so much money, I would switch them out with super simple ones. Instead, I run the mop along the baseboards often to keep stuff from building up.

The triangle shaped mophead fits into corners and small spaces, does a great job on tiles, walls, grout lines, baseboards, even that slider door track. Oh, and no sheets to throw away, the mopheads last a couple of years at minimum! I have two so that one is always clean.

For bookshelves, light switches, a quick dust, or wipe here or there, I use Vim wipes, but you could also use baby wipes, if you happen to have those on hand. They clean up the little messes and dusty bits lickety split.

Other helpful tips..

Do a bit of cleaning every day to keep the dirt and drool at bay. Wiping, walls, vacuum or wash floors... do one of these each day to avoid getting overwhelmed. When I don't get to it regularly for some reason (arthritis is really bad), I hire a house cleaner to do a really good clean for me, hah! It's easier to keep up if you start with clean.

Feed the dogs outside. My dogs eat their meals outside, on the bottom step to the deck. This raises the bowls off the ground a bit, to make it easier for them to eat/better for them, plus keeps the big messes outside. When too cold outside, we live on the prairies where temps can go to 40 below, they eat on a (washable) rug by the back door.

We use metal bowls with grippy rubber on the bottom so they don't nose the bowls around the house. Or the deck. These ones are big enough for a mastiff snout to fit in well, hold enough food, and are not pricey. Metal is safer, harbours less bacteria, is easy to scrub good and clean.

We always have two or more water bowls on the go, too. You want big ones to hold all their water as they drink a lot. One bowl is inside (on a rug to catch the drips), the others outside. The dogs will have a drink and try to use you as their drool cloth, so having a cloth nearby to wipe their jowls is a good idea.

Grooming - The dogs have two big shedding seasons, spring and fall, during which time it really helps if you give them a regular brushing. We like this simple loop groomer, and the dogs love it. A slicker brush is also something we use often, they love to be brushed!

Berkie goes to the groomer quarterly, but Hemingway is too chicken (a mastiff thing) so he gets a shower now and then in our new sauna shower.

Windows - sticky slobber and nose art is a thing. You will need a good glass cleaner to get this off the windows and doors.

I hope this does not dissuade you from getting big dogs. Big dogs are the best dogs ever. If you want a loving couch potato type, get an English Mastiff. If you want a dog with stamina, the Bernard is awesome. It is totally possible to have a clean home with big dogs (and little kids).

Happy... Cleaning?

Happy Clean Home ~ Tanja