Cleaning GTD

[katherine]

I have 3 dogs and 2 cats. I love them but their fur and hair are big troubles. I have to hoover all the time, everytime i have guests or if i feel that its too much hair around. It takes a lot of time because once i hoover, i tend to hoover every corner of the house. I love my pets but i think i waste so much time on cleaning the house. Can GTD help?

 

[bishblaize]

Simple - new project, give away cats and dogs

 

[LFSCO]

Aaccccckkkkk

No giving away the pets!!

Try making time spent hoovering more productive. Put an interesting book or great music on an mp3 player and listen while you work. Then your house will be clean and you will not feel that you've wasted the time.

 

[Roger]

Welcome to the forums, katherine; the good news is GTD can help!

It helps by providing perspective and options. Perspective in the sense that it can help you see the context of how cleaning your house fits into your goals of having a clean, inviting house, having guests over, being a responsible pet owner, being a good person, etc etc.

Options in the sense that GTD can be very effective in helping us think of different solutions to the problems in our lives. Everything from giving pets away, to locking them away from parts of the house, to hiring a cleaning person, to buying an automatic robot, to resigning yourself to a house full of animal hair. The ability to consider the options before you and to make a conscious decision about your direction can provide a much greater sense of control.

Cheers,
Roger

 

[katherine]

Simple - new project, give away cats and dogs

No thanks, i don't want to give them away at all, i love them :sad:

 

[katherine]

No giving away the pets!!

Try making time spent hoovering more productive. Put an interesting book or great music on an mp3 player and listen while you work. Then your house will be clean and you will not feel that you've wasted the time.

Thank you for your advice, but i mean i want to reduce the time of keeping the house clean, but its still clean. You're right i can read books or listen to music while hoovering, but it even takes more of my time.

 

[katherine]

Welcome to the forums, katherine; the good news is GTD can help!

It helps by providing perspective and options. Perspective in the sense that it can help you see the context of how cleaning your house fits into your goals of having a clean, inviting house, having guests over, being a responsible pet owner, being a good person, etc etc.

Options in the sense that GTD can be very effective in helping us think of different solutions to the problems in our lives. Everything from giving pets away, to locking them away from parts of the house, to hiring a cleaning person, to buying an automatic robot, to resigning yourself to a house full of animal hair. The ability to consider the options before you and to make a conscious decision about your direction can provide a much greater sense of control.

Cheers,
Roger

Hi Roger, thanks for your advice. Actually, i lock them from my bedroom, but they're around everywhere because i want them to feel free. Hiring a cleaning person is quite expensive, maybe just one hour a day or some hours a week, i'll think about that. A cleaning robot, well Rogers, it's not what i'm thinking about.
Thanks!

 

[padma]

Why don't you use a robot hoover, it's quite popular now where people are too busy. They can navigate on their own, moping and sweeping the floor with rotating brushes and vacuum. They can even clean the dark corners, as they are equipped with lights.
They're quite quick, the only think to complaint is they're noisy, but your pets may like to play with them.
A robot is the best answer for you Katherine, it's not too expensive, more than $150, equivalent to a canister or upright one, maybe cheaper.

 

[katherine]

Why don't you use a robot hoover, it's quite popular now where people are too busy. They can navigate on their own, moping and sweeping the floor with rotating brushes and vacuum. They can even clean the dark corners, as they are equipped with lights.
They're quite quick, the only think to complaint is they're noisy, but your pets may like to play with them.
A robot is the best answer for you Katherine, it's not too expensive, more than $150, equivalent to a canister or upright one, maybe cheaper.

Thank you for your advice, the price is ok i suppose. And i hope it will last long under the attacks of my dogs. Really interesting, i didn't think of a robot hoover. i looked at it in that website, its small and convenient and quick as you said. A good idea so far. Thank you.

 

[Oogiem]

i didn't think of a robot hoover. i looked at it in that website, its small and convenient and quick as you said.

We tried one but it does not work if you have area rugs at all. Seems to do best on all carpet or all hardwood. We have hard wood but some accent rugs and that does not work.

How often do you brush the pets? Can you spend some of the time brushing and thus reduce the hair that you have to pick up around the house?

 

[ellobogrande]

Sounds like you have a "wild" project (that's a term D.A. used in an article Stalking the Wild Projects). "Resolve situation re: house cleaning" might be an appropriate title. There might be many paths to resolving that situation; you might decide to invest in a robot vacuum, hire a maid, or perhaps set up a house keeping routine that doesn't take so much of your time. If all else fails, accept that the amount of cleaning is part of the total cost of ownership of your pets and mark the project done.

 

[Jamie Elis]

since you are still researching ideas

Here are some more ideas:

Maybe keep sheets on furniture when you are out--furniture takes longer to hoover than floors, and/or train dogs to stay off the furniture. I find cats do whatever the heck they want so don't bother trying to train them.

Try to find a person who will come for an hour a few times a week just for hoovering--this person might prove to a good pet sitter for when you are away. A student, retiree, or work-at-home person might be happy to do this for less $ than a maid who is there for longer time.

Facilitate pets use of their favorite haunts such as warm dog and cat beds in winter to concentrate the fur in limited places.

I think it odd, but I know of people who have their cats shaved in the summer so they supposedly look like lions,although to me they look like the stuff of nightmares but it reduces shedding and hair balls.

 

[hikerpa]

I have the same problem Katherine! I have two long haired cats and one sheds an abnormal amount of hair. I've tried to keep up on the brushing but it just doesn't seem to help. So 3-4 times a year I have her shaved. She really seems to like it. She goes from looking like a huge ball of fur to a sheared lamb. They usually give her a modified lion cut and it looks really cute. This seems to cut back on the hair all over the house. The bigger problem is the other cat doesn't seem to know who she is when she first gets home and spends 24 hrs stalking her.Good luck I know what you're going through.
Ellen

 

[Gardener]

I have 3 dogs and 2 cats. I love them but their fur and hair are big troubles. I have to hoover all the time, everytime i have guests or if i feel that its too much hair around. It takes a lot of time because once i hoover, i tend to hoover every corner of the house. I love my pets but i think i waste so much time on cleaning the house. Can GTD help?

It sounds like part of the solution may be reducing your standards. For example, you say, "Once I hoover, I end to hoover every corner of the house." Are you cleaning the areas where the pets don't even go? If so, why not stop doing that?

I'd suggest setting up a specific schedule and simply resisting the urge to do more. For example, you could keep the hoover set up and plugged in on one corner of the living room, and do a quick run over the living room carpet for five minutes every second day when you get home from work. Then, every Saturday, you could go over the whole house thoroughly.

If you find yourself feeling uncomfortable about this, as if every time you have the hoover out you should do the whole house and do it perfectly, then I'd say that that may be a part of the problem, and something that calls for examining. Sometimes setting priorities and lowering your standards is the right solution.

Gardener