Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FortunaForAll #cbias #collectivebias
How to Organize Your Dog’s Supplies Before They Take Over Your Life
I think you all know that Frodo is out to get me. Oh, sure, he looks sweet and cuddly (okay, he is sweet and cuddly) but…let me tell you a little story.
Frodo and the Best Day Ever
The other day our ABA therapist arrived as usual (we’ll call him Adam). Frodo, being a dog, is convinced that Adam comes every day just to visit him. He gets so excited. He thinks it’s The Best Day Ever when Adam arrives.
Have you ever seen a kid jump up and down in excitement? Frodo knows better than to jump so instead he grabs the nearest object to put in his mouth when he gets excited. The other day when Adam arrived Frodo proudly presented him with Apollo’s muddy shoe. I assumed Adam had no interest in Apollo’s shoe and took it out Frodo’s mouth. Frodo and I walked by the pantry so I could take him outside to go potty. As I chained him up I noticed he had a piece of bread in his mouth. Oh yes, my friends, Frodo walked by the pantry and stealthily grabbed a piece of bread to snack on. Without me even noticing!
What the heck??? Bad, dog, Frodo. Bad dog!
The other way he is out to get me is to overtake my house with his supplies. No matter how much I plead, he refuses to read my blog post about how More is Less in a Large Family. Therefore, his dog supplies multiply. I swear he has more toys than that kids did at his age.
I am determined if I can raise 14 kids, run a successful business, and effortlessly explain the birds and bees to a six-year-old, certainly I can organize the paraphernalia from a single dog.
Right?
*please say yes*
3 Steps to Organize Your Dog’s Supplies
In general, when organizing it is a good idea to keep everything in one spot instead of spread throughout the house. With Frodo, I have found it works best to have a few convenient spots around the house to stash his supplies.
1. Buy Container to Store Your Dog’s Food
I store Frodo’s food in a plastic container with a lid in a quirky little closet we have in our living room. This way it is concealed but easy to access.
2. Buy a Container for Your Dog’s Toys
This metal container is actually left over from Tilly and Jared’s wedding. I like the rustic look it adds to my living room and it is easily big enough to contain all of Frodo’s toys. I also love that when he gets bored he will look through this bin for a toy to play with. It’s so cute!
Being a dog, Frodo tends to drag his toys all over the house. I love that when it is time to tidy up they all be tossed in this bin.
3. Contain Your Dog’s Outdoor Supplies
I bought these vintage locker bins at a garage sale for $1 a piece a few years back. I love these things and they are perfect for storing Frodo’s outdoor supplies in our entryway. This bin contains his leashes, his harness, his brush, and his snacks and treats. I love how it blends in with the rest of the entryway. While I know our house isn’t going to make it into any beautiful home magazines, I am happy our home doesn’t look like a pet store.
Those three steps keep Frodo’s supplies more or less contained. At the moment his crate is in the living room (which I hate) but so I haven’t found anywhere else to put it. How do you contain pet products at home?
If you are looking for more resources, Treehouse Puppies is a great site for dog information and product reviews.
We tend to keep the cat toys in the cat tree climber. But my children think the cat tree is a canoe and so it’s basically a lost cause. I spend a lot of time picking up stuff and exclaiming “THIS IS NOT A CANOE” to my intermitenly deaf offspring.
Our new kitten LOVES rice. It’s super weird, but she fits right in.
Is there even any point in trying to organize cat toys? Cats do whatever the heck they want….I do find it hilarious that you keep telling your kids, “that is not a canoe!” lol
Our dog is a mini aussie named Abby, she’s 5yrs old. We keep her food in a small upright rubbermaid container that’s really a trash basket. Whenever Abbie thinks it’s time to eat, she flips her bowl upside down and pushes it across the floor. That does tend to get your attention. Now the cat is a different story. She will meow for food even though there is food in her dish. I will tap the top of her container of food and pretend to put food in her dish, she falls for it every time.
I have one of those large bags I carry yarn, crochet hooks and whatever project I’m working on in it, along with kleenex, a flashlight, my keys and a small pocket knife. Oh, and usually a packet of gum. I usually set this bag on the floor. A couple of times in the past few weeks, I’ve been finding kleenex all over the floor next to my bag and wondered what the heck was going on, when it dawned on me, the dog is nosing through my bag trying to get to the gum.
Oh my goodness, our cats do the SAME THING. Seriously, bowl full of food and they will meow until I “feed” them. What is with cats??? Frodo is *terrible* about stealing food.
Please, please make sure your gum does not have xylitol in it. If it does, you need to do something ASAP to keep your dog from getting into as even a small amount can kill a dog pretty fast.