Not many things make you feel quite as good as the greeting from your pet when you return home. It’s hard to be in a bad mood when a furry bundle of love is jumping at your feet anxious to spend the rest of the day with you. However, after you take a few more steps into your apartment, and see the mess you have to clean up from your pet’s shenanigans, it’s hard to remain calm. Don’t let this scare you away from a pet! There are many ways to keep the mess to a minimum, so you spend less time cleaning and more time hanging with your best “furry” friend.

Dog Hair.

Pets leave a little piece of them wherever they go, or should we say A LOT of hair. While it is nearly impossible to stop a pet from shedding there are plenty of ways to keep it contained and to prevent a lot of it.

1. Place a blanket or a towel in the place(s) your pet loves to lay. This way, the fur remains off of the furniture and will result in easy cleaning. Shake it out and run it through the wash.

2. Get your pets groomed regularly. Keeping your pets groomed and clean will lessen the amount around your home. This will also help with the scent around your home.

3. Purchase a vacuum or mop that is specific for pet clean up. This will ensure a deeper clean and will pick the hair up, rather than blowing it around.

4. Keep a lint roller by your front door. You are bound to get a bit a hair on you when you kiss your fur baby goodbye. On your way out give yourself a little rollover.

5. Brushing your pet often will capture stray hair instead of it falling all over your home.

Odor.

While we love having our furry friend to cuddle up with, they don’t always give off the most pleasant of smells. Keep your pet and furniture fresh to avoid a home that smells like “dog.”

1. Wash their bed often. A pet’s bed can collect odors from the pet laying around and the toys it brings in with it. Besides, who doesn’t like crawling into a clean bed?

2. Air Freshener. Keep a spray bottle of air freshener around at all times to spritz your house and your animal’s blankets/bed often, especially when you don’t have time to wash it.

3. Another trick for bad smells is baking soda. Sprinkle this in an area where your pet had an accident and the scent will be gone in no time.

4. Bathing your pet regularly will also keep the odors to a minimum. However, there is such a thing as over bathing your dog! It’s best on an as needed basis or once a month.

Tidiness.

1. Organize by purchasing a cute basket for toys. Cute baskets can double as cute décor!

2. Have basic pet clean-up supplies on hand. If you have to run to the store after a mess, the disaster will sit around longer, making it smell worse. While it may not be that type of disaster without the cleaning supplies right there, you are less likely to get to it.

3. Exercising your buddy will wear them out and keep them happy. Happy pets lead to less rowdy behavior inside.

Most importantly, remain calm. A pet may cause a mess every now and then, but the companionship is always worth it! Don’t let yourself get fired up when your pet has an “accident” or leaves its toys everywhere. Instead, remember how sweet they usually are and grab your handy cleaning supplies!