Beautiful homes with kids and pets

[Anonymous]

I have a friend like that. It’s totally personality and just spending a ton of time cleaning. She is ruthless about getting rid of stuff and her kids didn’t have a ton of toys.
I can’t live that way!

[Anonymous]

I’ve had my own home look like that when it was on the market. I spent about four hours a day keeping up the cleaning after the cleaners did the big clean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend like that. It’s totally personality and just spending a ton of time cleaning. She is ruthless about getting rid of stuff and her kids didn’t have a ton of toys.
I can’t live that way!

I have a friend like this too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend like that. It’s totally personality and just spending a ton of time cleaning. She is ruthless about getting rid of stuff and her kids didn’t have a ton of toys.
I can’t live that way!

I have a friend like this too.

+1. They spend so much time on it and can't go to sleep before everything is perfect. I could use more of that, but not to that extreme.

[Anonymous]

We have a hound and a Pyrenees mix. It's impossible. Just embrace the lived-in, happy vibe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bunny Williams social media is great inspiration for this!

She doesn’t have kids (or they’re grown, idk) but she has dogs and dog beds and dogs on sofas and such. When she has a couch upholstered, she has quilted blankets made in the same fabric that she puts on for the dogs and can whisk away for guests.

The other thing is making everything washable and having good tools for cleaning. If you have a dog, you have to be better at cleaning than non dog people. Get to know fabric types, a Bissell, oxiclean and nature’s miracle.

I think big fancy houses with dogs also often have a “dog room,” sometimes a mud room, where the dog hangs out a lot of the time. Any house that big is going to have formal and informal, “back of house” spaces. That goes a long way towards keeping the formal spaces clean.

Lol. Only bunny Williams could afford to use Schumacher at $400 a square foot for her dogs to lounge on !

Well of course but the concept is good. I actually bought her quilted dog blanket from Ballard and it is perfect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bunny Williams social media is great inspiration for this!

She doesn’t have kids (or they’re grown, idk) but she has dogs and dog beds and dogs on sofas and such. When she has a couch upholstered, she has quilted blankets made in the same fabric that she puts on for the dogs and can whisk away for guests.

The other thing is making everything washable and having good tools for cleaning. If you have a dog, you have to be better at cleaning than non dog people. Get to know fabric types, a Bissell, oxiclean and nature’s miracle.

I think big fancy houses with dogs also often have a “dog room,” sometimes a mud room, where the dog hangs out a lot of the time. Any house that big is going to have formal and informal, “back of house” spaces. That goes a long way towards keeping the formal spaces clean.

Lol. Only bunny Williams could afford to use Schumacher at $400 a square foot for her dogs to lounge on !

Well of course but the concept is good. I actually bought her quilted dog blanket from Ballard and it is perfect.

I’m so sorry, it was Carolyn Roehm who said the thing about the extra fabric and I think I read it here:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-6851705/LIFESTYLE-dog-house.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3 kids and 2 dogs. It takes a lot of daily clean up. We have a housecleaner every week and hired a professional organizer to get the pantry, laundry room, mudroom and closets set up with a good system I could continue. I get stressed if the house is messy so it’s a lot of effort on my part - you just have to decide if it’s worth it to you or not.

OP here - thats the thing though, its totally worth it to me! In general my house is clean. We have bi-weekly cleaners, the pantry, garage, fridge, closets are all organized and we have a good system. Its just the small random things that sit around that drives me nuts. The mail that needs to be sorted, the Amazon return that needs to go to UPS store, the kids art work that came home from school, a random rubber band from one of the kids that got left on the counter, etc. It just all adds up and to me it makes the house messy. My husband is thankfully also a neat freak but we just don't have enough time in the day to keep everything as clean and organized as we would prefer.

OP you need catch all baskets. I have 3 kids and a dog in a similar size house to your and I manage to keep my counters and floors clear by keeping attractive but functional baskets around. We have a basket tucked away in the kitchen for mail, school papers, and miscellaneous things that need to be addressed. I have a stair basket for things that need to be taken and put away upstairs. Kids toys can easily be dumped into a basket with a lid at the end of the day. I swear just having aesthetically pleasing places to store the things you don’t have a chance to get to is a game changer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3 kids and 2 dogs. It takes a lot of daily clean up. We have a housecleaner every week and hired a professional organizer to get the pantry, laundry room, mudroom and closets set up with a good system I could continue. I get stressed if the house is messy so it’s a lot of effort on my part - you just have to decide if it’s worth it to you or not.

OP here - thats the thing though, its totally worth it to me! In general my house is clean. We have bi-weekly cleaners, the pantry, garage, fridge, closets are all organized and we have a good system. Its just the small random things that sit around that drives me nuts. The mail that needs to be sorted, the Amazon return that needs to go to UPS store, the kids art work that came home from school, a random rubber band from one of the kids that got left on the counter, etc. It just all adds up and to me it makes the house messy. My husband is thankfully also a neat freak but we just don't have enough time in the day to keep everything as clean and organized as we would prefer.

I can offer a solution for your returns. I have a dedicated shelf in a main level closet for returns, boxes I haven’t opened yet, donations, etc. I realized I needed one empty shelf to house things that were on their way IN or OUT of our house, but needed a place in the meantime.

I have this too! There is an empty shelf in our coat closet just for unopened packages/pending returns/bags to be taken to goodwill. And I don’t have a big house (no garage or mud room). We’ve just learned to keep our coats and boots somewhat minimal so our entry closet can serve as a staging area for life stuff.

[Anonymous]

Our house was pretty uncluttered on the main level because the kids played in the basement. I probably have ADHD and clutter makes me distracted and irritated in my environment.

What do you mean about not seeing chargers? We have them in drawers next to outlets and one behind the couch.

Schumacher fabric isn't $400/yard for designers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our house was pretty uncluttered on the main level because the kids played in the basement. I probably have ADHD and clutter makes me distracted and irritated in my environment.

What do you mean about not seeing chargers? We have them in drawers next to outlets and one behind the couch.

Schumacher fabric isn't $400/yard for designers.

That’s not ADHD. The clutter bothers me too, but staying on top of it is too overwhelming. My husband is the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3 kids and 2 dogs. It takes a lot of daily clean up. We have a housecleaner every week and hired a professional organizer to get the pantry, laundry room, mudroom and closets set up with a good system I could continue. I get stressed if the house is messy so it’s a lot of effort on my part - you just have to decide if it’s worth it to you or not.

OP here - thats the thing though, its totally worth it to me! In general my house is clean. We have bi-weekly cleaners, the pantry, garage, fridge, closets are all organized and we have a good system. Its just the small random things that sit around that drives me nuts. The mail that needs to be sorted, the Amazon return that needs to go to UPS store, the kids art work that came home from school, a random rubber band from one of the kids that got left on the counter, etc. It just all adds up and to me it makes the house messy. My husband is thankfully also a neat freak but we just don't have enough time in the day to keep everything as clean and organized as we would prefer.

I can offer a solution for your returns. I have a dedicated shelf in a main level closet for returns, boxes I haven’t opened yet, donations, etc. I realized I needed one empty shelf to house things that were on their way IN or OUT of our house, but needed a place in the meantime.

I have this too! There is an empty shelf in our coat closet just for unopened packages/pending returns/bags to be taken to goodwill. And I don’t have a big house (no garage or mud room). We’ve just learned to keep our coats and boots somewhat minimal so our entry closet can serve as a staging area for life stuff.

Our coat closet has a shelf above the hanging bar, but it wouldn’t be big enough for this I don’t think. I have a package/return staging area in my guest room/office. It’s not bad and if I need to clean it up, I put them in the car.

[Anonymous]

I’m in the 1500 sq ft club and love the idea of a house big enough that storage baskets aren’t a trip hazards and extra visual clutter and that you have a magical closet with an empty shelf. We have 4 closets. The only one downstairs is single door width and where all coats, boots, dog supplies, tennis stuff, bubble wrap/packaging, picnic blankets, coolers and backpacks, mittens and hats go.

I don’t think I could squeeze a single package to be returned in there. I prefer to stack them into a little wall near the front door in the outline of my pretend fantasy mudroom.

[Anonymous]

I like houses that look like people live there. I can't imagine giving that much of my life and money on a Sisyphean lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in the 1500 sq ft club and love the idea of a house big enough that storage baskets aren’t a trip hazards and extra visual clutter and that you have a magical closet with an empty shelf. We have 4 closets. The only one downstairs is single door width and where all coats, boots, dog supplies, tennis stuff, bubble wrap/packaging, picnic blankets, coolers and backpacks, mittens and hats go.

I don’t think I could squeeze a single package to be returned in there. I prefer to stack them into a little wall near the front door in the outline of my pretend fantasy mudroom.

Yep it's hard in these older 1500 sq ft homes with few closets and those we have are tiny.