Tools of the Trade

Yesterday I realized just how many cleaning tools we have.  You have to have alot of tools if you are going to keep after eight dogs.  We also have four horses on the farm, three chickens and two cats. 

The array of tools for the house alone is mind-boggling. I thought I would review my favorites for clean up and give you some tips and secrets as to how handy they can be.

First, I would absolutely not be able to exist without my Shark Steam Mop.  This dandy little tool uses water to clean your floors, and it cleans all kinds of floors.  We have three surfaces in our house....tile, laminate and wood.  The Shark does all three, and well.

You have to figure that in order for me to mop the family room floor, I either need to put all of the dogs outside or block them with all the furniture from coming into the room.  Both of these choices can be troublesome.  Let's analyze why.  First, if I put all the dogs outside and the ground is wet, and then I mop the floors, even though we dry 32 paws with the 3,972 dog towels we have (yes, I'm exaggerating) you can never really wipe off ALL of the dampness.  So you feel like you've just wasted the 15 minutes it took you to mop the floor when 32 somewhat-wiped-off-but-still-a-little-damp paws hit the floor.  Second, moving the family room furniture can be a drag, and there is always some wise-guy or girl dog who tries to climb over the top of the furniture just to see what it is you are doing.



A clean floor family room, just off the kitchen.
That's Harry on the back of the couch.

 With the Shark, I can wait until all of the dogs have settled in for a nap on the dog pillows I've just moved into the kitchen (off the family room), plug in the unit and steam away.  Since the mop doesn't deposit water on the floor, but STEAMS the floor, it dries in minutes, well before nap time ends.  I then can move all the dog pillows into the family room, wait until the shuffling of dog bodies refinds their nap spots, and do the same for the kitchen floor.  In about 30 minutes, both rooms are done, the dogs never missed a wink of naptime and I am still sane.

In the old days, I relied on Swiffer wet jets, buckets and conventional mops, and the old hands-and-knees method.  I still have Swiffer wet jets for quick spill clean ups or dog issues (usually preceded by the verbal question "What is THAT on the floor?"), but the bucket method, full of Murphy's Oil Soap and water, is reserved for the hardwood floor in the front room of the house.  In the old days, I used to need some type of coaching to start the process, because ultimately I would get done and some dog would run across the floor and take his/her wet paw prints all the way into the other rooms, plus wreck the floor-wash I had just completed.  I'd have to sit down and have a glass of wine.  This is detrimental to floor washing.

A Dyson vacuum is essential.  We bought our Dyson two years ago after using an Oreck for many years.  There is nothing like a Dyson.  No bags, and the cannister empties so easily.  The floor and carpet settings really do their job in terms of sucking every conceivable dog hair out of its hiding place.  I also keep a small, hand held Oreck to do the staircase.  It's impossible to do with a big vacuum.


A clean kitchen floor.  Easily done with the Shark Mop.


Paper towels...go buy stock now, specifically in Bounty (it's our brand of choice), because our family solely keeps this product off supermarket shelves locally.  We can never have enough paper towels.  In fact, it's a family crisis when we find we are on the last sheet on a paper towel roll and can't find another roll in the entire household.  It's akin to a national crisis if this happens to occur on a holiday when no stores are open.  I've been known to hide in a room until this storm has passed.

I tend to like Method products for cleaning.  For nose prints on windows, you can't beat Method's Best In Glass.  No streaking.  You can use it in any weather--cold, hot, sun beating right down on you like an ant under glass...it doesn't matter, the stuff is pure genious.  We have a large picture window in our family room that looks out toward our barn.  There is some unexplainable force that draws our dogs' noses to this window.  I've been thinking about calling in the paranormal society to investigate just why this keeps happening.  You know, you could be going along having a normal afternoon and then BAM, six noses are glued to that window.  It's uncanny.

The other quick tool I have is a laminate floor mop, complete with four covers, and a bottle of laminate floor cleaner.  This is a very simply designed object.  It's a stick with a rectangular, flat piece of plastic on the end with foam on the piece of plastic, for which you buy some special flat-piece-of-plastic cloth covers (they come two to a pack).  The laminate floor cleaner can be purchased at any Lowe's or Home Depot, K-Mart or WalMart.  I buy the one in the white jug made by Precision Components, because I figure any product with the word "precision" on it must do precisely what it says.  (Okay, I'm lying.  I bought the first one I saw that had the words "to clean laminate floors" on it.)  You pour some of this product into a spray bottle, and spray it on the cloth cover, then clean the floor.  You do a small area at a time.  It's fantastic for laminate floors because it gives them a nice shine, making them look new again.

There are plenty of other tools that clean dogs, make dogs smell great, and stop dogs from entering certain rooms (except for Burton, who can jump a baby gate that is three feet tall in pursuit of a cat or some toy he has inadvertently let slip under the gate).  But, we'll save them for another day, another discussion, somewhere down the road.

So yes, it is possible to have a clean house and eight dogs.  Sure sometimes the dust bunnies are larger than real rabbits, but that only seems to happen if I'm sick and missing the regular beat of my day.  Today is clean the upstairs day.  Gotta get to it.  Everyone is napping!

Bethy, Burton and Moe about to stick their noses to the window.




Arroooooooo