5 Things You Need If You Have Pets

There are just some things you need if you’re going to have pets. Besides patience and a strong stomach, of course. I mean real things that help make life easier.

Having owned many pets over the years, here are five of my favorite things – basic, useful items that I wouldn’t want to do without:

1. Lint roller

As a matter of fact, just go ahead and buy stock in the company and beg them to send lint rollers along to you through the mail…I wish I would have thought of that years ago.

If you own an animal with fur, or you are making plans to, put this on your list of things to buy regularly, especially if you want to wear black pants ever again.

We use lint rollers around here for our clothes, our furniture, even our pets. The cat quite enjoys it. The dogs (hounds) are indifferent to the process.

A lint roller in every room is still not enough lint rollers.

2. Rain boots

I went for years without these. I don’t know how I survived.

Well, I do know how: poorly.

These are a great investment if any of your pets are outside or like to go outside.

For taking the dogs out, these are PERFECT.

They slip on quickly, no shoelaces to tie, no worries if it’s raining or muddy, and you can hose these off!! HOSE. THEM. OFF.

Yes, buy a pair of rain boots if you haven’t already. You’ll be glad you did.

3. Plain fleece beds

I don’t have anything against other fluffy or colorful beds. I really don’t. As a matter of fact, I own some of them. And I’m always tempted to buy many more when shopping. But for many reasons, this is still my favorite pet bed.

For one thing: no stuffing to unstuff. I once had the most comfortable dog bed that the dogs refused to lie on – so I moved it from the living room to the den. Appalled at this apparent display of rebellion on my part, Rummy (a delightful and hard-headed hound dog) shredded it to bits and made sure the entire room was covered in its pieces. That’ll teach me to move things around in his house, eh? Honestly, he had never shredded anything but his toys before this, so I don’t know what inspired him.

With these fleece beds there is nothing to un-stuff.

Also, they hold up incredibly well under scratching and chewing. I’m not going to say they can’t be chewed up, because obviously a tenacious chewer isn’t deterred by mere fabric of any kind.

I have used these for my rabbits and they last longer than any other beds I know of. Fluffy, cute beds are usually pointless with rabbits. They will chew these, too, so you have to watch out for that, but I don’t mind if my rabbits shred them by digging or pull them apart without eating any of it.

The very best thing about these: they wash up great! You can machine wash them, or even hose them down with a watering hose or a shower head and hang them out to dry. I am always amazed at how easily dirt and stains wash out when I hose these down. I hang mine over a porch rail and let the sun dry and disinfect.

We have an incontinent older dog, so these are great for her and easy to wash. For small amounts, they absorb well, protecting your floors. (For extra protection on hardwood floors, I add puppy pads underneath just in case.)

The cats even love these, and they have the option of napping anywhere in the house, on any surface. Often, they choose these beds.

4. Swiffer

I heartily thank the person who invented this and lament over the fact that it wasn’t me.

Swiffer dry sheets are great for picking up dust and hair in hard-to-reach places. Super easy to use and have handy at all times, a Swiffer should be in every pet owner’s toolkit.

5. X-pen or metal pet pen/playpen

I use these for everything!

I have used mine as rabbit housing, puppy exercise pens outside, puppy sleeping pens inside, easily moved gates – particularly helpful for wide entrances or to partition off parts of a room.

They can be linked together to make a bigger pen.

Very mobile, very sturdy, very useful. Worth every penny.

For rabbits, a few more tips: use binder clips (that hold paper together) to hold the pen together so you can effortlessly take it apart for easy access and cleaning. Use a plastic chair mat (intended to protect floors from office desk chairs) to protect floors and carpets. This also helps simplify clean-up. The mats are perfectly sized for the pens, and can be purchased for $10-20.

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Note: I’m not saying these would house a grown dog that was determined to plow through…I use them as gates for hounds (freestanding or with extra panels tucked behind furniture near doorways!) but I didn’t want you to think that I was guaranteeing that these would keep an extra-large canine in the kitchen if said canine desperately wanted to get into the living room.

These five simple things can make your life easier and less messy. More time for Netflix bingeing, book reading, coffee drinking, family conversing, all the good stuff – whatever makes you happy. Finding things that eliminate time spent cleaning and scrubbing so you can do more relaxing at home with your people and furries, that’s what I want. (I don’t like to clean, much less scrub, if I haven’t mentioned that already.😉)

If you have some tips or must-have items in your pet owner’s toolkit, please do share in the comments!

You Might Also Enjoy:

• “Along Came a Cat” – the story about how we were adopted by a skinny, skittish stray. Our home is now a little fuller, a little lovelier, and a whole lot more hairy.
• With cats come the dreaded litterbox. Here are some suggestions for places to hide a litterbox, without sacrificing ease of access.
• Just for a laugh: that fateful day when I thought it would be a good idea to have two of my hounds neutered at the same time.