By Sarah Folmar, Brand Communications Specialist
Sarah pictured here with son Dylan and pets Sheeba and Tyson. Becoming a mother is the most intense challenge you can ever face. Not only does your schedule dramatically change, but you are now responsible for a living creature who will probably start doing what you did as a child. Thankfully my son has not started making forts out of my curtains, but it’s only a matter of time, I’m sure.
One way that I have learned to make things a bit easier with having a child and dogs is to find products that have multiple uses. Now this isn’t a blog that says to save money you should just hand your dogs old baby toys, even though my dogs salivate when looking at my son’s strange looking teething rings. There really are products out there that have proved to be useful in taking care and cleaning up after my son and my dogs.
I’m going to talk about something that all mothers and pet owners handle on a regular basis: Poop. Yup, it happens, and if you have a baby, it happens all the time. There is nothing worse than being out at a restaurant and smelling that familiar “Who is the unlucky one that gets to deal with this one” smell. My husband and I are pretty social, and this experience happens often since we are out of the house a lot.
One great product we have found to be helpful when disposing of diapers in public are doggie poop bags. You can throw a diaper in a trash can without one, but any kind human being wouldn’t inflict that kind of torture on someone else’s nose. Poop bags are obviously also great if you have a dog or cat who decides to do some business in public. We always have them in the stroller when we go to the dog park, that way we are prepared for any mess (fur baby or human baby) that comes our way.
If you live in a home with carpet, you know that this is something that can get pretty dirty with children and/or pets. Even if your pets (and your children) are potty trained, accidents can and probably will happen at some point. A great (and safe) cleaner you can use incorporates lemons, white vinegar, water and baking soda. The instructions to make this cleaner can be found here. This can leave your carpet smelling fresh and clean, and once it is dry you will feel comfortable having your children and pets play on it again. It also helps when cleaning drool off of the highchair table, mud off of the front mat and other high-traffic areas that your pets or children may frequent.
When we brought baby Dylan home, I remember getting a massive amount of bottles. Baby bottles, pacifiers and toys manage to become sticky and have remnants of drool at all times. I never realized that someone so tiny could cause such a mess! One great product we love is the Drinkwell® Fountain Cleaning Kit. This allows us to reach all of those weird nooks and crannies that baby toys and products always seem to have. The soft scrubber on the end of the large scrubbing tool is great for scraping any particles out of the bottom of the baby bottle, especially when you are starting to use rice cereal or stage 1 foods. This is a great kit to purchase if you have one of our pet fountains since it is wonderful when cleaning all of the small parts. The best part is that you won’t need to buy anything extra with this multi-use product!
These suggestions can help when searching for stocking stuffers for anyone with children and pets. Even the smallest of gifts can go a long way when they have different uses. Trust me. Minimalizing the amount of stuff I have in the house has become a priority since the baby entered the picture!
