Pet Proofing Your Home: When Your Kids Want to Have Pets

 

There will come a time in every parent’s life when their child will want to have a pet. You can say no, if you want, but it has been noted that having a pet teaches a kid to not only love unconditionally and to have a companion they can care about, but also to be responsible for another living thing. If your child wants a goldfish or a turtle for a pet, then you won’t really need to pet proof your home. If your child wants a puppy or a kitten for a pet however, then pet proofing is indeed needed.

How do you pet proof a home and why should you do so? For starters, if you do not want your dining table’s legs to become a scratching post or your carpet to become a litter box, then pet proofing is a must. Not only do you need to protect your furniture from the onslaught of claws, pee, and poop, but you also need to protect your lamps, appliances and other electrical devices from becoming useless or from breaking.

Pets can wreak havoc to a home, and while it is a good idea to give your child a pet to teach them how to be responsible for another life, preparing your home for such an addition is necessary. For your furniture’s legs, you will need to protect these from scratches by spraying these with citrus scented furniture polish or air freshener. Cats hate this and will avoid anything that smells of citrus.

For your cables and cords, try to find a way to tuck these away in places where pets cannot get to them. Tacking them to walls and covering them with cord covers will not only keep them from becoming a chewing toy for puppies and kittens, but also helps make your home look neater.

For your rugs or carpets, to stop or prevent your pets from peeing on them, you can use the same tactic that you used for your furniture legs. Spray your carpet with a solution that is made out of water and anything that has a citrus scent. Lemon works best for this, and can help stop your pets from peeing on your rugs, not to mention making these and your home smell really fresh.

Pet proofing your home is a good idea since it helps protect the pet and yourself from safety issues (exposed electrical cords from chewing, wet spots on the floor that you can slip on, etc.). It also gives your child the chance to own a pet that can become their lifelong friend.

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Finding My Dream Furniture Online

Working moms know what I mean when I say that there is never enough time for everything that needs to be done. Aside from needing to take care of the major chores at home, you have to do the groceries, buy your kids the stuff they need, help them with homework, and be the supportive parent that you should be. Oh, and did I mention that I also have to go to work every day? Like I said, there is never enough time to do everything that needs to get done.

Keeping your home from looking drab is also another thing that a mom like me has to do. I dream of having a house that looks like those amazing images found in architecture and interior design magazine. While most of the furniture in these spreads are made by some of the more expensive manufacturers of furniture around, you can always try to find cheaper alternatives elsewhere. The only problem is, where can I find the time to do this?

With a day that is pretty full with PTA meetings, work, laundry, still more work, preparing dinner, and yet still more work, I could very well wave my dreams of a picture perfect home goodbye. Thank goodness however that I am one of those people who work from home (some people call it telecommuting), and I am allowed a flexible schedule, so even when I do have a mountain of work waiting for me, I can still adjust my days according to what is needed. That does not include, however, time to go to furniture stores to do some window shopping and comparison shopping.

How do I find the time to slowly but surely put together my dream home? By doing online shopping, of course. Thank goodness for the internet, and for sites that allow you to have furniture you order delivered to your doorstep. Not only do I have this convenience (which I can sometimes do while working), but I can also easily compare prices without needing to walk or drive from one store to another. No more painful feet and pavement pounding for me.

The great thing about this particular convenience is that it does not eat up whatever extra time I have for my kids, my chores, and myself. I get to put together the kind of home I want, at a budget that I can readily afford (thanks to comparison shopping and free deliveries) and without having to worry that I won’t have enough time for everything that needs to get done. Do I consider myself lucky? Indeed I do, and thanks to modern day conveniences like online shopping and telecommuting.

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How to Train Your Kids to Be Organized

Training kids to be organized is probably one of those tasks that most parents dread doing mainly because the terms “organized” and “kids” don’t really go together. While it may seem like an impossibility, you can actually teach your kids to be organized; however you have to start them young. In order to do this, you also need to have the kind of furnishings needed for the proper organization of your kids’ things.

When teaching your kids organizational skills, you not only teach them how to keep a place clean and orderly, but you also teach them how to manage their time wisely. Being organized, after all, means that you have things in proper order, and that can mean anything from being able to keep to a set schedule, to keeping things in the proper place, to looking neat and tidy. Organizational skills is something everyone should have in order to reduce clutter in their lives, and having your kids learn this at an early age will benefit them in the long run.

To start your kids down the right path to being organized, you should first have storage furniture that they can use. Make sure that each kid has their own storage unit so that they know that things have to be in the proper place all the time. Have storage units for the different things that they own, like toy chests or cubbies for their toys, bookshelves for their books, and drawers or dressers for their clothes. Once you have a defined storage system for their things, you can then move on to teaching them where to put what they own.

For your kids to truly embrace being organized, you need to set a schedule for when they can play with their toys, read their books, and other similar activities. You also need to set rules for keeping things in proper order, like returning one toy before getting another, or putting books away first before they can watch cartoons on television. Setting ground rules will help them realize that they need to put things in order first before they can do other things, or before they can get the privilege of enjoying other activities.

While this particular endeavor may take a lot of patience and time to get done, being able to teach your children to put things where they should go is an achievement. This will benefit them till they have their own families and kids to teach such skills to, and will benefit you as well since you will have an organized home that you won’t have to stress about being too messy because of disorganized kids.

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