When I adopted my Golden Retriever 16 years ago, I was maddened by the dog smell. He was 9 months old and didn’t have any accidents inside, he didn’t go in the carpeted areas of the house, and I cleaned constantly, but still couldn’t get rid of the smell.

Since then, I’ve had another (even stinkier) dog and hosted over 150 dogs in my house (up to 7 at a time!) with my dog-sitting business. I have been so excited to hear many times throughout all that, guests commenting that they couldn’t smell the dogs or see the fur anywhere.

So here’s what I did to keep our house smelling and looking clean, AND keeping the dogs comfortable, clean, and happy:

Daily cleaning tasks with dogs:

• Run the robot vacuum (automatically–and bonus tip: run it on a schedule, so it forces you to tidy the floor before it runs). I’ve tried many of these, and in 100% honesty, I LOVED the inexpensive ones and nearly despised the expensive name brand ones. My favorites are the Deebot and the iLife.
• Run a lint roller over your clothes. I do this before cooking (we keep one in a kitchen drawer). It keeps fur out of the food of course, but also off of everything else you touch and sit on.

As-needed cleaning through the week:

• Spritz Kids-N-Pets enzyme cleaner on problem areas or areas the pets frequent takes care of small odor issues.
• Spot clean any carpeted areas or fabric furniture that are stinky for whatever reason. You can use Kids-N-Pets diluted in water with a towel to scrub and then cover with a clean, dry towel, or use a spot cleaner. This spot cleaner gets regular use around here.
• A couple times a week, brush the dogs (outside) to keep loose fur out. You can use any brush for this, even a hairbrush works well on many dogs.
• Clean their paws. Doggy feet get stinky and transfer that stink to the floors, so when needed use the MudBuster paw cleaner–usually once or twice a week. Then dry with a towel. You’ll have less stink on the soft floors and less paw prints on the hard floors. If you don’t have a MudBuster, use a very wet towel to scrub, then a dry towel.
• Dry shampoo the dogs, my DIY dry shampoo recipe is my favorite, and it’s practically free. For me, this is usually about once a month, in between baths.
• Shake out rugs. I was impressed by how much these rugs actually work. We keep one outside the back door (on a covered deck) and one inside the door for double the dirt catching. I would like to shake them out daily, but it’s usually once or twice a week.

Weekly cleaning tasks:

• Use a deshedding brush on the dogs.
  If you have a double-coated dog, you might want to take pictures of the second dog you could create out of the fur…fur that would be all over your house otherwise.
  Different deshedding brushes work on different breeds. For double coated dogs, the ShedMonster has been my absolute favorite. For short-haired dogs (and cats), I love the EquiGroomer (I learned about it from the great groomer, Girl With The Dogs, so it’s safe and effective.)
• Remove fur from fabric furniture. Very lightly mist the fabric with water, then put on rubber cleaning gloves and wipe the furniture down with your hands. It’s AMAZING how much better this works than a lint roller, and there is no burning through roller refills either.
  It picks up all the fur way better than a lint roller does, and there’s no waste and no refills to buy.
• Remove fur from bedding. Your bedding and theirs. The Chom Chom is so good for large surfaces.
• Run a full-sized vacuum on carpeted areas. Twice in a row. You’ll be amazed at what comes up with a second cleaning, whether you have dogs or not, but especially if you do.
• Mop hard floors. (Don’t use Kids-N-Pets in your mopping liquid, it makes them VERY slippery.) You can do a full mop, but even a Swiffer-style wet mop will make a big difference.
• Wash the rugs in the hottest water you can. If you get the rugs I recommend, don’t use vinegar on them as it will break down the non-slip backing. If they are stinky, soak them in water with Oxiclean overnight before washing.

Bi-monthly or monthly cleaning:

• Clean the carpet. After running the vacuum (twice!), clean the carpet with a carpet cleaner, preferably using Kids-N-Pets as your cleaning solution (it’s natural and actually eliminates the odor instead of masking it with fake ones and it’s the most effective natural ones we’ve found). And don’t worry, cleaning the carpet with the right cleaner is just as easy as vacuuming.
  This is my favorite carpet cleaner for dogs. It does a great job at getting out the gross, and if you take your time, it dries the carpet pretty well too.
  For the first year or so, I kept everybody (human and dog) off the carpets while they dried, but then realized it didn’t really matter in the end. Before bed is a great time to do it though if you’d rather not walk on damp carpet.
• Bathe the dogs.
  There’s much advice about how often to bathe your dog. After having 3 of my own, and having over 150 visiting dogs, I’ve found that every dog has different needs. Some need a bath monthly, some weekly. When your dog no longer smells neutral or feels pleasant, they’re are likely feeling it too and start scratching and rolling in the grass excessively. Give ’em a bath. For double coated dogs, a silicone dog brush helps tremendously to get the shampoo all the way to the skin when bathing. It’s important to get all the way to the skin if you’re going to remove the smell. (If you struggle to get the shampoo all the way to the skin, that might mean they have slightly matted fur, use a “slicker” brush to clean that up, then bathe.) I do 2 to 4 shampoos per bath, depending on how clean the fur feels. Start with 2 if you’re not sure.
  Dry thoroughly after the bath, otherwise they’ll just bring in fresh wet dog smell and undo everything. Towel dry (2 to 3 towels with lots of encouraged “Shake” in between, then let them run around outside while you clean up–tossing some kibble into the grass keeps them excited by engaging their hunting needs and keeps them busy while they dry out a little–we say “Kibble hunt!”). Then once you’re ready, blow dry to make sure they’re dry to the skin.
• Wash their bedding in the hottest water you can. I like to spray it down with Kids-N-Pets first and lay it outside to dry, then wash normally with soap, but using vinegar instead of fabric softener. It comes out with the least smell and the softest that way.

Recommended products to keep dog smell out

To keep the dogs clean

Paw cleaner

Effective at cleaning stinky paws before the smell transfers to the house.

Buy Now

ShedMonster

For deshedding double-coated breeds, I recommend this twice a week.

Buy Now

Equigroomer

Originally made for horses, this works so well on short-haired dogs (and great on my cat too!).

Buy Now

Silicone Dog Brush

Great for our Berner who has fine hair, both for de-shedding and bathing

Buy Now

To keep the house clean

Oxiclean

Oxiclean takes the dog smell straight out of clothes and bedding. For really strong smells, soak overnight.

Buy Now

Carpet and furniture spot cleaner

This is perfect for accidents on carpet, or just frequently used areas. I use it on my upholstered living room chairs as well with great results.

Buy Now

Chom Chom Roller

Much more effective than a traditional lint roller on large surfaces, and no refills to buy!

Buy Now

Door mats

They’re not all that cute, but they make a big difference!

Buy Now

Gloves for picking up fur

These gloves work way better than lint rollers for gathering fur. Just a light mist of water on the surface of your furniture or clothes, then swipe with the gloves and you’re done! So easy.

Buy Now

Carpet Cleaner

Carpet cleaner that’s as easy to use as a vacuum. This runs weekly in our house to keep the dog smell away.

Buy Now

Kids-n-pets

The most effective odor eliminator (even urine). Great for spraying directly on accidents, or for using in the carpet cleaner.

Buy Now

Deebot Robot Vacuum

Our favorite vacuum if you DO have a smart house. (WAY better than Roomba from our experience–and way more affordable.)

Buy Now

ILife Robot Vacuum

Perfect vacuum to run daily if you DON’T have a smart house. (Currently only $99)

Buy Now

Dyson Animal Vacuum (Refubished)

We’ve been using our refurbished (half-price) Dyson for 8 years and it’s still working beautifully.

Buy Now

And one last point: humidity makes a huge difference. The less humid your house is, the less it will smell like dog. Even if you do everything listed above, if your house is very humid, you’re going to smell the dog(s). Consider a dehumidifier if it’s an ongoing problem, otherwise, just remember it’s temporary and you’ll be back to normal when the humidity is.

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One of the projects we wanted to tackle for our dining room in the $100 Room Challenge was an upgraded dog gate. It wasn’t super high on the list of priorities, but it all just came together for only $3.75 so I couldn’t resist.

Update: I’ve gotten a couple irate comments on Pinterest over this gate (even an accusation that I created this so I could laugh when strangers children fell and injured themselves). People claimed that their dogs and/or children would climb it. First: if it’s not for you, you don’t have to do it! Second: we are dog sitters and had dozens of dogs of all ages and sizes while we had this gate and NOT ONE tried to climb it. Two of them put their front paws on top…and nothing happened. Third: if you have trouble with your child, you should clearly consider other options. Everyone else: please enjoy this very easy, cheap, and effective project.

We have a nice little entryway at the front door, but with the dog boarding business, we need a way to keep dogs back and safely inside when the front door is opened.

We have a really nice, fancy baby gate set up, but there are three annoyances with it:

1. A lot of people trip over it coming or going because it has a bottom piece that you don’t really notice, which is terrible (and the most important annoyance).
2. Guests also always have to ask how to get out, which is also silly to have to do, and unfortunately, they often get a little embarrassed.
3. It’s not pretty.
   I actually didn’t even notice how unattractive it was until I was taking the “before” picture for the challenge.

Here is the previous one:

And now:

As I like to do when I need to decorate on a budget, I started the project by browsing Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for free items. Usually I’m looking for things that could be given a cheap makeover, or taken apart for parts to build something else.

Knowing we wanted to DIY a gate, all I saw when I came across a free crib were tons of free gate parts.

This was the crib (originally):

We picked up it, and were super excited when we got home to find out that the side pieces were the perfect size for our doorways! We actually didn’t even have to take it apart for parts, just add hinges and a door latch. (I did trim down the two side pieces on top because they were too tall.)

So project breakdown for the new gate:

• Crib (FREE)
  If we needed to at this point, we would have cut down the parts to fit the doorway, or built it from scratch using the parts.
• Spray paint (FREE)
  We had white spray paint on hand. It wasn’t necessarily needed, it was a nice color, but this one had stickers that just would not come off cleanly, so it needed to be re-finished.
• Two hinges ($2.75 at Home Depot–similar here)
• One door latch ($1 at Home Depot —similar here)

A bonus of getting the whole crib is that we now also have a (free) headboard for our guest bed, another side piece that we’ll eventually use to add another matching gate to the hallway, and the whole front panel, which we’re not sure how we’ll use yet, but we’ll figure something out.

Oh, and if you happen to find a free or cheap crib online, many of them come with mattresses included, which make perfect large dog beds.

Here is a picture with the other side of the crib for reference. The left is the part “before.” So we just turned it on it’s side, trimmed the new “top” down and removed the drawer slide.

Another unexpected bonus is that the Roomba can now also vacuum the entryway. Which is very exciting for me.

Other updates we’ve made to the room so far are actual curtains(!) (also from FB Marketplace for $10), and we swapped out the light fixture.

The light fixture we had purchased a year-and-a-half ago for the family room and didn’t end up using it because the light it gave off wasn’t enough for the room, so it’s been sitting in a closet for all that time. (It’s this one from IKEA.)

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The dogs have been banished to the closet.  Our Golden boy isn’t a fan of confined spaces, but our Bernese girl loves them, so we thought she would love a bed in the closet and he wouldn’t be much of a fan.  Of course, it’s the exact opposite.  They both fit in the bed, and they’re both happier when they’re cuddling, so we’re sure once she gets used to it, she’ll love it as much as he does.

Moving them into the empty closet has freed up SO MUCH space in the bedroom.

Anyway…  The bed is made out of two 3/4″ MDF boards cut to fit right into the closet.  We wanted to do two boards instead of one so it would be easy to put into the closet, and easy to move if we need to.

There are 8 legs (4 on each board), they are the IKEA Capita legs (that’s a link to the 4″ because apparently, they don’t sell the 6″ ones that we used anymore–there are some 6″ available on Amazon though.  They are the same legs that are on the shelf on the other side of the closet.

The MDF base is currently topped with 5 layers of egg crate foam that used to be our mattress topper.  I’m still waffling on whether to keep that or try something different.  It’s nice and cushy, (maybe too cushy, as you can see) but the layers will have to be sewn together.  The edges aren’t perfect either, and it shows.  I’m planning on sewing a cover for it out of the fabric that’s laid on top of it now (it’s actually a rug from Five Below, they don’t have it online but it’s just a different pattern of this one).

And we have one shelf up above the bed for extra storage.  I’m considering another faceout for my blouses like we have for the Hubs’ suits on the left, but I’m still waffling on that too.  2 more weeks of the One Room Challenge to make the decisions and get it done!

And yes, the dogs get pillows.  The Roscoe LOVES pillows.  This is how excited he has always gotten over pillows:

A post shared by Christina Orleans (@christinaleans) on Aug 18, 2014 at 2:23pm PDT

Click here to browse all the other One Room Challenge participants!

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Our Roscoe is pretty big.  Even though he is a common breed, he is even larger than most Goldens (85 pounds at his healthy weight–95 if daddy feeds him). 

When it comes to buying things for him, he is considered XXL, which makes things hard to find and expensive.  For our first 3 years with him, we struggled to find him a bed that wasn’t ugly and he could actually fit in.  We went through so many “affordable” beds for him, but they would last about 3 months before getting lumpy.  It was time for a DIY dog bed.

Hover over the image to save it to Pinterest for later.

Actually, this can’t really be called a DIY, because it’s just a re-purpose.  But it’s a far more effective bed for a large dog than any actual dog bed we’ve found: it’s a crib mattress.  Here is our overjoyed model showing off his second, velvety sheet:

At Target, extra-large dog beds start at $80 (lumpy and stinky in no time) and go up to $350 (just, no).  Ours is from IKEA for about $35.  But you can get very affordable one from Amazon too (and if you’re a Prime member, the shipping is free too–if you’re not a Prime member, click here to get a free 30 day trial so you can take advantage of free shipping on something so huge.)

And of course, there are lots of good sheets for under $10. You can use a solid one, but obviously, the patterns are much better at hiding the fur and prints from dirty paws.

(Affiliate links above.)

Not only is the size of the mattress way better than most dog beds, it’s far higher quality, it’s not ugly and it’s so much easier to clean, since it’s covered with a machine-washable fitted sheet.  For extra protection, a mattress pad is only a few dollars more.  Another benefit of the inexpensive fitted sheets is that it takes about 20 seconds to put it on the bed.  Putting covers back on actual dog beds usually took me forever (or 20 minutes, whichever happens first)–pretty annoying when you’re washing it weekly.

So, there you are: a quality, non-DIY large dog bed for under $40.

The post Our non-DIY, DIY large dog bed appeared first on Little Victorian.

The legs cost $14.  We picked up the table top, but when we got to As-Is, there was the exact same one for $3.  Score!  We cut the some of the depth off the back end of the table so it didn’t stick out so far, screwed on the legs and Doggy Dog had his very own dining table.  For $16. 

Now, if you wanted to try this yourself, and you, like us, have a dog that dribbles and splashes more water than he actually drinks, I recommend sealing the table first.  Otherwise, you’ll end up with this:

Which you then have to prime.

And paint.

And seal.  And finally, put it back in it’s spot 24 hours later.

It was a quick, cheap and easy project, a vast improvement over the rug on the floor.  And the boy tells me he likes it much better too.

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