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When my husband and I had been married a few years, we spent nine months living in a house with carpeting in the kitchen. It was a very short pile carpet, granted, but absorbent nonetheless. At the time I had two small children—a four-year-old and a two-year-old. And anyone who has four-year-olds and two-year-olds knows that while kids that age are able to feed themselves, it usually isn’t without mess. Mess on the table. Mess on the clothes. Mess on the floor. Mess.
Meals became a source of doom for me. Not only was there the regular cleanup of dishes and utensils, there was usually a 15-to-20 minute ordeal to get the carpeted floor back to normal. Where a hard surface would permit simply sweeping or wiping up chunks of food and spills, carpeting required my picking up piece after piece—and crumb after crumb—by hand lest they be ground further in. And twice a day, it seemed, I was on my knees with a hot, soapy rag, wiping the carpet of some sticky spill.
Then one day, I came up with a perfect solution: I got a dog.
Her name is Suzie, and she became my vacuum. I know it’s not the most orthodox solution, but just having a nice, neat little dog on scene to whisk away (read: eat) wayward pieces of dinner cut my cleaning time by over 50%. With Suzie in the picture, I could focus all my energies on cleaning the carpet with the hot, soapy water after dinner. The painstaking process of picking up crumbs one by one was instantly eliminated!
We live in our house in the country now, and have hard floors in the kitchen.
I’ve decided they suit me much better.
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That is such a cute dog!
I never had a dog until I got married. “Stinky” was included in the package deal; marry husband, dog comes along. Didn’t want dog, didn’t like dog, dog didn’t like me. I came with a cat. Husband and cat got on as well and I did with dog. We all adjusted.
Five years into my marriage, and defying my OB/GYN’s dire pronouncement that husband and I would remain childless, I became pregnant. Nine months later I delivered two healthy robust beautiful babies. One boy, one girl. Heaven!
By this time, Stinky the dog had gone to that great fire hydrant in the sky, and remarkably I found that I actually did miss the beast. Fido (Yeah. Fido. Honest.) entered our life. He was a couple of years old when Baby 1 and Baby 2 entered our lives. I had my living, breathing, furry, barking vacuum cleaner in place long before my buglets learned to feed themselves. I cannot stress the importance of having a dog to perform this indispensible duty enough.
Two and a half years later, Baby 3 and Baby 4 made their respective appearances in our lives. That’s right, another set of twins. No, I did not use any sort of fertililty therapies — thankfully! But I did let my first OB/GYN know that I was expecting my second set of twins as soon as I myself knew. (Husband and I had moved when B1 and B2 were 18 months old. We outgrew our tiny house.) Four babies in less than three years? A dog was indeed a necessity!
Your post has the ‘Mom-O-Twins Seal of Approval’. Ha! And you thought getting a Bloggie was a big deal!
Mar
Ha, my dogs act like vacuum cleaners too! I have two little Bichons- but sometimes they cause as much mess as they clean
Ugh i wish you could vaccuum spills like that on a hardwood floor….too bad you have to use a rag to clean it up
We also have the best dog in the world, Sir Salty. Darling picture of your daughter and dog as best friends.
Yeah, if you have a toddler you got have a dog…a dog who will eat anything. It saves you in paper towels, saves your back from bending over to clean messes and makes for a happier household in general. Hooray for dogs as cleaning machines! We have a 15-month-old and a Boston Terrier…I wouldn’t have one without the other now!
We were dog parents 5 years before we became baby parents. Angel (dog) didn’t have warm fuzzies for our daughter, until she started eating in the highchair, and dropping food off the side. They became instant friends after that.
Ah yes, we also had a carpeted kitchen when I was growing up. Whoever thought THAT was a good idea?! A man, I’m sure! ;0) I cannot tell you how many times mom had all three of us girls on our hands and knees with soapy water and a rag to clean the never ending, always appearing spots! Thankfully, I have tile in my kitchen now. :0)
Mar, I love the name “Stinky.” Ha! And you have my admiration.
And Sir Salty? Candylei, that’s pretty darn cute.
Dogs as vacuums! Who knew it was a universal idea?
I have linoleum, hard wood and carpet and I long to be a complete hard wood floor home. There is nothing like the cleanup from hard surfaces.
Yes, Debra, Suzie loves small children. They’re very, very messy, which works out well for her!
just posted about having zero carpet in my home. love that i can clean up the children’s messes, our messes and visitors messes in a snap!
I also pull out the chairs from the table after we are done eating while I load the dishwasher and the doggy comes in and does that little job for me, too.
Nice work! I’ll have to do a cross post on this one
Ree, love being able to read you here, too.
Wonderfull…
we have linoleum in the kitchen, but we are too lazy to *gasp* sweep up crumbs. we have two mini schnauzers who take of any messes. my husband has been known to wake them up from a nap to call them to the kitchen to lick up something. and their tails wag the instant we get out a pot or pan to cook.
Our two dogs are affectionately called Hoover and Eureka and the cat is Dust Buster. Between the three of them they even clean up milk spills and we have plenty of those.
We aren’t allowed to have dogs in our apartment, but my cat makes a nice little Dustbuster. With no kids yet, the droppings tend to be small enough that she’s eaten them before deciding she doesn’t like what ever we had.
The only pitfall has been that she’s developed a liking for pasta…we have to lock her in her crate when ever we eat anything with sauce or she ‘forgets’ that she’s not allowed on the table.