This post is sponsored by our friends at Swiffer & Febreze. All opinions are mine alone. #SwifferFanatic #DontSweatYourPet

We all love our pets – they make our families complete! Since it’s National Pet Month, it’s time to show some extra appreciation for our fur-ever friends, as well as pet owners, by sharing some Pet Owner Life Hacks. Along with all the benefits to having a furry pet in your life, there do come some challenges – but thankfully there are some great tricks and tools to make it much easier and so you don’t have to sweat your pet!

#1: Make Clean-up Easier

Especially with the Springtime rain, muddy paw prints have become a regular occurrence – especially on pretty wood floors! It used to frustrate me to no end, having those little prints all over – but not anymore thanks to the Swiffer Sweeper Dry & Wet Pet Refills with Febreze Odor Defense that Trap + Lock! I love how easy it is to put on one of the wet pads, wipe across the muddied floor a bit, and then my floors are back to looking beautiful. Plus, that Febreze Odor Defense really helps with the muddy (or wet dog – ugh) smell! Just grab some of the refills next time you’re shopping at Kroger.

#2: Easy Storage for Pet Supplies

Nobody wants a bunch of dog toys or leashes and such laying all around the house, right? Especially at night, I don’t want the dogs to be playing with their squeaky toys or leaving a ball at the top of the stairs in the dark. We use a couple of different storage options – a big tote for items that we only get out occasionally (like dog nail clippers, or ‘special’ toys) and also a cute basket tower where we store their daytime toys during the night, and also leashes so we can grab them easily for a walk. It keeps them out of the way, so the pups can’t get them, and looks nice in the house which is a great bonus!

#3: Bathtime Fun

If your dogs are like mine, they do NOT like bath time. Even my kids, when they were younger, didn’t put up as much of a struggle! I heard this trick, and it’s actually helped quite a bit – smear some peanut butter on the far wall of the bathtub to keep your dog occupied while you wash them. Easy, rewarding for them, and hopefully less of a battle for you.

#4: No More Bad Pet Smell

While we all love our dogs so much, sometimes their smell makes us less eager for those warm snuggles. Especially when guests who aren’t use to dogs come over, I want my home smelling fresh – which is why I keep my Febreze Air Heavy Duty Pet Odor Eliminator handy in that storage basket I was telling you about! Just a few sprays around where my dogs have been the most, and that dog smell is gone.

#5: Protect The Furniture

Our dogs nap a lot during the day, but at night they’re spending extra time lounging on our couches. To help protect the fabric a bit more, we have some cheap bed sheets that we use to cover our couches at bedtime, then fold them up and put them away in the morning. It provides a little layer between the dogs and the couch, helping a bit with the odor and the shedding. You can also help keep your couches smelling fresh with the Febreze Fabric Pet Odor Eliminator – especially great when you have company coming over that may be seating on the couches!

#6: Tackle Shedding

For carpets, did you know that you can use a regular squeegee rubbed along it to lift up all that pet hair? It works like a charm! For the tile or wood floors (I love my wood floors!), use your handy Swiffer Sweeper Dry & Wet Pet Refills with Febreze Odor Defense again, but this time start with the dry refills to sweep up and trap all that shedded hair easily. My kids have a lot of fun using our Swiffer Sweeper, which makes it nice for me not having to battle to get the floors clean! After all, we don’t want to ‘sweat our pet’, right?

What are your best pet owner hacks?

Thanks to Swiffer + Febreze for sponsoring this post. All opinions are mine alone. #DontSweatYourPet 

With Valentine’s Day so recently, I loved seeing all of the local shelters and rescues posting their holiday specials so you could adopt your new furry Valentine. Sweet dogs and cats holding little signs such as ‘Be My Valentine’ or snuggling heart-shaped pillows? Melt my heart! For those of you still stuck at the thinking stage – whether or not you should adopt a new furry friend – here’s some of my thoughts about how to tackle at least some of the things that may be causing hesitation. Because really, adopting comes with Love and Pet Messes – but we can help with that last one!

We’re long past the thinking stage, but I still remember that amongst the excitement and desire to get a pet, there were concerns. Will we have enough time to pay adequate attention to our new pet? What are the costs involved? Are we going to be able to keep and care for her long-term? And of course – what about the PET MESSES?! I know animals shed, and it can be super frustrating – but the great news is that it doesn’t actually have to be a hassle! If the messes are the last thing keeping you from enjoying the amazing friendship and love of a new pet, you can rest assured that Swiffer + Febreze can save the day with a swish and a spray. You can nab both during your next trip to Kroger!

I was thrilled to learn that my favorite cleaning helper – Swiffer – now has special pet-specific products to really give us pet-owners some help. I’m talking about the awesome Swiffer Dusters Heavy Duty Pet Refills, as well as the Sweeper Dry and Wet Pet Refills with Febreze Odor Defense that Trap+Lock all that pet hair and dirt. I’ve always loved how easily I can sweep up all the dead grass and yuck on my floors, then making them fully clean and shiny. Plus the Swiffer Dusters are AMAZING for getting all the nooks and crannies around the house where my dogs’ shedding seems to come to rest.

Along with the ‘pet messes’ is the smell – we all know that dogs and cats don’t always smell like roses (despite rolling around in them often, it seems!). But that ones even easier, because Febreze AIR Heavy Duty Pet Odor Eliminator can freshen up all around your home with a quick spray. If you’re worried about your couches – my pups LOVE laying around on our couches – then never fear, because there’s also Febreze Fabric Pet Odor Eliminator that helps to quickly freshen those up, which is particularly great before having guests over.

While there may be other reasons you’re not ready to commit to a pet, if you’re at the point where you ARE ready, it’s truly an incredible bond between pet and owner. We love our pups so much – they truly complete our family! There’s ups and downs in all love stories, but Swiffer + Febreze can help make sure you don’t sweat your pet because of the mess or odor. No matter what stage you’re at – thinking, plunging, or loving (that’s us!) – you can enjoy the fact that Swiffer + Febreze help clean and freshen up pet messes quickly AND efficiently. That means you can spend more time with your new fur-ever friend!

What pet would YOU most enjoy?