Friday Favorite - Two of My Favorite Cleaning Helps

 

Today’s Friday Favorite is actually two items. We definitely have a multi-dog household. Living with seven long-haired Chihuahuas makes for lots of dog hair and lots of messes on the floors from muddy paws, water slurping, etc. I work very hard to keep our house not only fun, safe, and healthy for the dogs, but also clean and healthy for the humans that live here also.

Today I want to share with you my two favorite tools that make that job so much easier. The first one is ‘Hazel’, my Shark Cordless Stick Vacuum. 

Yes, I named the vacuum. 😄 After years of going through boxes and boxes of Swiffer mop cloths, we finally decided to give a cordless vacuum a try. I was quickly sold on the ease and convenience of this lightweight vacuum. It was especially helpful when I was recovering from surgery on my arm. I love the fact that I can return the vacuum to its charging base, where it will charge and empty itself. No more getting dirty to empty the canister. Yay!!! It has a removeable hand vac that works great for cleaning other areas such as drawers, corners, furniture, and dog beds. The roller bar is self-cleaning and the hair does not wrap around it. With dogs, that is a huge plus!

It has 40 minutes of running time, which is plenty for me to vacuum our entire house. It can be used on both hard floor surfaces and carpet. I use this vacuum every day! 

You can check it out here.

 

My second favorite for today is ‘Eleanor’, my Eureka Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum and Mop in one. 

This is so much better than slinging a mop and bucket! Self-propelled and soo easy to use, even Shawn-the-Wonder-Guy loves it. For use on hard floor surfaces, this machine will vacuum up debris and mop at the same time. It senses dirt and automatically adjusts the suction and water flow. It has a 35-minute run time. It has a clean water tank and a dirty water tank, so you are never spreading dirty water over your floor like when using a conventional mop.  It is easy maintenance with its self-cleaning features and has pleasant voice prompts. When you return it to the base, it will charge and clean the roller. You simply dump the dirty water out and leave it to charge for next time. I use this to mop the floors 3-4 times per week.

You can check it out here.

These two cleaning helps have been game changers for my ability to keep my floors clean and looking nice. Both are relatively quiet when in use and the dogs sleep through the cleaning process, unbothered even when I use them right up close to them. I hope they can be a help for you, too.

Have a happy weekend and give your pups a hug from us! 💖

My Friday Favorites are always items that I have purchased myself, used for a length of time, and am very pleased with and am willing to make a recommendation to others. The links I provide are to the item in our Amazon store and are affiliate links. I receive a small commission off any purchase you make using the links.

A Little Introduction

 

Since I am starting our blog back up, I decided it was a good time to write an introduction and a little bit of history of how we arrived here.

My name is Kelli and I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, in a nice suburb outside of Portland, Oregon. I have lived here my entire life.

My first dog was a Collie, which I received as a birthday gift when I turned 12. It had taken three years of begging my parents to let me have one. I named him Reno and joined 4-H to learn how to train and show him. I was hooked instantly and went on to show in AKC dog shows, handling my own dogs as well as other people’s dogs. Reno came with me when I married Shawn-the-Wonder-Guy. I taught obedience classes for several years through our local community schools program. I really loved that and met so many great dogs and people!

I started my business of designing a clothing line for the tiny dog breeds in 2008. We didn’t have any small dogs at the time, but we did have Cody, a beautiful tricolor rough Collie. He was a dream dog. So gentle, laid back, and patient with our kids. We had 7 children, so it was a blessing to have such a sweet dog.

Cody

I soon decided that I needed a live model for the photographs of my designs. After a brief search, I found Stormie. She was a retired show dog, who hadn’t really enjoyed the dog show world, but she loved to model clothes. My business really picked up after her arrival. And the name Cody and Company was created. The company part being the Chihuahuas. I acquired another Chihuahua, Shimmer, from the same breeder that I had bought Stormie from a year later. And Breezy came a year after that. Cody passed away from cancer, but we kept the name in his honor. The three girls were super stars. We attended many dog events, were featured in calendars, and Stormie was even on the cover of a Chihuahua magazine.

Stormie

Shimmer

Breezy

While I believed time would never catch up with us, it did indeed. The girls got older and one by one they passed away. But the thing with Chihuahuas is that once you are hooked, you can’t have just one. Soon, we had nine of the little beauties and I have loved every minute of being their Mommy. Unfortunately, Charm and Finn passed away in August 2023, bringing us down to 7 dogs: Cooper, our old man at age 14, Scarlett, Tallie, Tucker, Ivy, Leo, and Benny.

Cooper

Scarlett

Tallie

Tucker

Ivy

Leo

Benny

Charm

Finn

I closed my business shortly after the Covid pandemic. While no longer running the business, I have remained active on my social media pages, sharing the lives of our fun crew of crazy Chihuahuas.