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dEHmom 09:19 AM 05-05-2011
ok ladies (and gents if there are)

i don't have much for carpeting other than mats at the doors.
I have obviously kids, and also dogs and a husband

at least 3 times a day I am sweeping up a dust pan full in each room of mud (dusty like because it's dry), sand and dog hair.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to reduce this? i've resorted to keeping shoes on, because i'm sick of black feet/socks. it's embarrassing and i just can't keep up.

Putting carpeting in is not an option. Do I just need better door mats? one that will keep the majority of the dirt on/in it?

Also, does anyone have any ideas on this?
my dogs hair collects under the chair legs, and is very annoying as i have to tip the chairs to pull the hair mats off. any suggestions how to stop this?
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AfterSchoolMom 09:21 AM 05-05-2011
Have you considered a Roomba? I don't have one, but I know some people who do and they like it.
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AnythingsPossible 09:27 AM 05-05-2011
All i can tell you is that my hard surface floors are the exact same way! I sweep my kitchen/dining area atleast 3 times a day. My dog's hair also collects on chair legs!
My only suggestion for the dog hair would be to be diligent about brushing your dog so they don't shed as much hair. With that being said, I don't do that, so don't know if it would really make a difference or not.
No advice, but know that you are not alone
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Gurdy 09:32 AM 05-05-2011
Originally Posted by dEHmom:
ok ladies (and gents if there are)

i don't have much for carpeting other than mats at the doors.
I have obviously kids, and also dogs and a husband

at least 3 times a day I am sweeping up a dust pan full in each room of mud (dusty like because it's dry), sand and dog hair.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to reduce this? i've resorted to keeping shoes on, because i'm sick of black feet/socks. it's embarrassing and i just can't keep up.

Putting carpeting in is not an option. Do I just need better door mats? one that will keep the majority of the dirt on/in it?

Also, does anyone have any ideas on this?
my dogs hair collects under the chair legs, and is very annoying as i have to tip the chairs to pull the hair mats off. any suggestions how to stop this?
Are you talking about kitchen chairs? I had this problem with my kitchen chairs when I was using felt pads under the legs to protect the floor. Now I pulled all of those off and put on "Magic Sliders" they are plastic gliders and I do not have that problem anymore. I bought them at Target for $5 for 8 (enough for two chairs) I love them.
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dEHmom 09:33 AM 05-05-2011
i haven't considered a roomba, but i figure it'll get destroyed in my house. everything comes here to die, except kids of course. seriously material item in my house dies. kids or dogs destroy everything. i bought a good little bissell dust buster vacuum for like 10 or 15 bux at walfart, it has a stick handle so you can use it like a normal vacuum and not hunch over. i love it. but i'm not pulling it out 15 times a day. i know it's part of summer to have grit on the floors, but i'm sick of it.
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dEHmom 09:35 AM 05-05-2011
i will try the magic sliders. i thought about that, or putting tennis balls on the chairs. but figured the tennis ball would make hair cling to it more. and that's perfect amount because i only have 2 kitchen chairs, the rest is a bench style pub thing.

p.s. mmmmm home made perogies fried in butter.
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laundrymom 09:39 AM 05-05-2011
My roomba lasted 6 years on m-f daily use. In a dayhome. Well worth the money.
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dEHmom 09:41 AM 05-05-2011
Originally Posted by laundrymom:
My roomba lasted 6 years on m-f daily use. In a dayhome. Well worth the money.
how much do they cost? i'm poor. lol. nm! i just checked. cheapest is around 200. lol. dh would shoot me chop me up and then bury me in the backyard.
my dh let me buy a tristar 2 years ago. not a cheap vacuum. we are still paying it, but i sold it for more than i owed. i dont' think he will let me buy a vacuum again until we have wall to wall carpet.
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seashell 09:44 AM 05-05-2011
I vote Roomba!

I have 2 german shepards, 2 teenagers and 8 daycare kids. IT WORKS WONDERS on my carpeting and pergo floors.
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laundrymom 09:44 AM 05-05-2011
I got it from hsn or qvc. Not sure which. It was around 300.
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Lilbutterflie 09:47 AM 05-05-2011
I know you said you have resorted to wearing shoes in the house; but honestly that's where all of your dirt is coming from. I really think that if you were consistent with "shoes off at the door" rule; you will find so much less dirt being tracked in. Less dirt in the house = cleaner feet.

You can buy dog shampoo at the pet store specific to shedding. I really found that it works well if you can also consistently brush your dog.

The other dirt factor is probably your dog tracking in dirt from outside. Not too much you could do with this; but I do have a funny story about it. My neighbors have effectively trained their dog to wipe his paws on the door mat!! Their dog is obsessed with the laser pointer; so when he's about to come in with muddy paws, they point it on the door mat and he pounces on the mat! They repeat this a few times and sure enough... his paws are all clean! I think that's too cute if you can pull it off! Otherwise you could keep a towel by the back door and wipe his paws if they are muddy. That's what I do at home with mine.
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Meyou 09:49 AM 05-05-2011
I have a swiffer sweep and vac and I love it. I've been using it for two years. It'll pick up any bit cheerio sized or smaller and the swiffer pad gets all the dust the vacuum misses.
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laundrymom 09:53 AM 05-05-2011
I agree rumba isn't for everyone but I'm a bit obsessed with cleaning. Lol. I used roomba after every meal in my kitchen and I vacuum the whole house once a day and the living entry and hall 3 times. If "I see 3" that's my self imposed rule. If I see three pieces of something I vacuum.
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momatheart 09:55 AM 05-05-2011
Put a bin type deal to put shoes in and tell people to remove their shoes outside and then if it rains move the bin to your entry and have people remove them there.
Shoes on all day does make the dirt worse.

I did pick up 2 new rugs for my entry way at Kohls the other week it seems to trap the sand type dirt more than the flat rugs. This rug I bought has raised squares all over it. I have noticed a difference with these rugs.

I do have long hair cats and the fur from them is horrible. My dog doesn't shed. We have no carpeting in our lower level and I deal with that little dirt stuff and cat fur all the time. Seems I am the only one that knows how to clean it around here as well.
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dEHmom 09:56 AM 05-05-2011
it's dry mud coming in on the dogs, and it basically is like mud dust. plus sand on the kids clothes, hair, etc. we do our best to shake before coming in, and my dogs stay at the back door. and everyone knows shoes off at the door on the mat. but they take their shoes off, and then step in it to get other shoe off, and then it's tracked through. plus excess off of dogs.

i do realize it's bound to happen, but i just wish it was not so much!

neither of my dogs really shed. yet anyways. but one has short hair, and it is like static, and when the dogs play they pull each others hair out sometimes, but it's mainly dog hair that when they lay beside the chairs or under the table, it just gets caught under the chair and pulls out when they get up. kwim?

during the day the kids are in and out to go potty and stuff, and sometimes they do it so fast you don't catch them to shake first.

i am wondering if i can train the dogs to wipe their paws too! lol.

i'm trying to convince dh to build me a big deck/screen room off the door we mainly use. then shoes would stay out there, and no mud, rain, snow, etc would come in, or at least very little. my doorway is small, and when everyone tries to get in when it's pouring out, makes it tough.
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laundrymom 10:00 AM 05-05-2011
Maybe a bit larger rug by the door?
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Cat Herder 10:36 AM 05-05-2011
I use a Shark bagless Vacuum for hardwoods and the swiffer wet jet for daily mopping. The swiffer solution refills were kind of pricey so I fill a spay bottle with diluted Lysol and spray the floors by hand. (the swiffer sweeper refills work great for dusting by hand, too)

I do have the huge commercial mop and rolling cart, but use it only on Fridays.

I have Golden's, no carpet, DH, 4 cats and 3 teens so my home sounds similar.

I do have the tennis balls on my kitchen chairs to keep the teens from scarring up the wood when they slam the chairs around or scoot them back.

I had the gliders but if the big kids/teens tip the chairs in the least (and they will ) they break off. I even tried the ones you nail into the leg itself and the plastic sections broke away from the nail leaving the nail head to carve a chunk out of my floor in two places.

I do wish you good luck, though. It is a never ending battle...
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countrymom 10:54 AM 05-05-2011
I too have a small entry way, I think you need to buy a better rug. Also, everyone knows that you can't step off the mat with your shoes on. I have that little vaccume from walmart, its awesome, but I get tired of cleaning and sweeping all the time.
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MyAngels 11:26 AM 05-05-2011
Originally Posted by AnythingsPossible:
All i can tell you is that my hard surface floors are the exact same way! I sweep my kitchen/dining area atleast 3 times a day. My dog's hair also collects on chair legs!
My only suggestion for the dog hair would be to be diligent about brushing your dog so they don't shed as much hair. With that being said, I don't do that, so don't know if it would really make a difference or not.
No advice, but know that you are not alone
Brushing your dogs will definitely help. We had a golden retriever who shed like crazy, so we started having him groomed regularly and field cut (that's a short cut for anyone who doesn't know). It made a huge difference in the amount of hair in the house.
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dEHmom 11:29 AM 05-05-2011
Originally Posted by MyAngels:
Brushing your dogs will definitely help. We had a golden retriever who shed like crazy, so we started having him groomed regularly and field cut (that's a short cut for anyone who doesn't know). It made a huge difference in the amount of hair in the house.
i have a golden and he almost never sheds.
i hear shedding has something to do with lack of certain things in their foods (omega???) some dogs can eat garbage food and be healthy enough, and others can eat good quality food and still lack certain things.

it's our short haired dog that sheds. it's strange.
my golden loses a few hairs here and there.


strangest thing.....my living room smells like my husbands nasty ass socks. he is not home, and i cannot find a stray sock anywhere. WTF!!!!
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daycare 11:32 AM 05-05-2011
I used to have african slate flooring.. I lived in a very dusty area and had similare issues as you are having.

I know this sounds weird, but i used to run a huge box fan in the dusty are of the house so that it would all blow to one corner of the house. So instead of having to sweep non stop everywhere I only had to sweep up in that one area it blew too...
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ammama 12:05 PM 05-05-2011
I have a dog and cat too, who both shed terribly. I have just started swiffering several times a day - I leave it out in the open, and either I, or one of the dck's sweep up. They love using it

I have thought about getting a roomba, but I heard they really didn't last long. After some of your reviews, maybe i'll try to pick one up from Kijiji.
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Blackcat31 12:10 PM 05-05-2011
If you get a Roomba you can serve two purposes at once....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebhDbvnLdDE
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dEHmom 12:14 PM 05-05-2011
i bought one of those dollar store swiffer style heads, and then attached it to a spare broom handle i had. i make sure there's a clean cloth attached, and the daycare kids always sweep up for me.

and i agree with pp who said they make great dusting clothes. that's what i use too. although i buy the great value brand clothes, not the actual swiffer brand.

i used to love my swiffer wet jet for quick tidyups but when the economy went south it was just too expensive, especially since the dcks and my own kids always loved spraying the thing. i too also just mix my own lysol and water in a spray bottle for counter cleaning, and floor cleaning and just wipe it up with the mop after.

i have an old kitchen floor. it's the ones with all the dimples in it. my dad informed me that when they started those floors there was a machine you could rent/buy that spun and cleaned all the dirt out of the dimples. when we moved in, the floor was flat, no dimples. i always just assumed the brown/black specks on the floor was part of the coloring (brown flooring with black speckles). looked like it. then one day i had to scrub with a hard bristle brush a bottle of syrup that was dumped out. and then i discovered it wasn't flat, it was dimples, and the dirt had just caked in there over so many years (previous to us buying the house) that it never came clean.
the swiffer does not do a good cleaning job for a deep clean, just surface cleaning.
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Michael 01:30 PM 05-05-2011
Make sure you have both an outside hard bristle door mat and an inside absorbant door mat.

Patio Coco Coir Doormat - Heavy Duty Outdoor Mats



Mr Brush Step Door Mat



iRobot Roomba 4210 Discovery Vacuuming Robot


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PeanutsGalore 03:05 PM 05-05-2011
I have all hardwoods and tile and no entryway at all. No shoes on the floor, PERIOD, END OF DISCUSSION! And it's still a neverending task to keep the floors moderately clean, but I recently purchased the shark vac then steam machine, and it works wonders.

It's a lightweight (and v. cute!) vac specifically for non-carpeted floors and will not work on carpet at all, but it picks up all the fine dirt and dust tracked in on hardwoods that seems to just move from one spot to another when you sweep. To steam the floors, you stick a plate with a really super-absorbent cotton pad on the bottom, poor water in, and get to it.

I do the house thoroughly once a month, high-traffic areas thouroughly once a week, and spot clean as necessary. My bare feet have never been so clean. The machine is made of awesome. $149 on sale at Sears, and you can pick up a service contract for about $20 to replace it if it breaks. Well worth the price.

I'm one of those rare people who think that animals belong outside, so I can't help you with the dog issue. The laser-trick sounds fun, though!

eta: water is usually said to damage hardwoods, but the steam dries super-quick, so no issue. If you have really old hardwood floors with a wax finish though, that might not work with the steam. Modern day finishes are fine with it.
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Tags:dog hair, door mat, roomba, vaccum cleaners
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