I'm overwhelmed. . .

Karin---I love that quote!!!
 
Wow, this is great I'm loving reading all the advice and things everyone does. 

I worked my butt off last night for hours.  I've got everything picked up, vacuumed, dusted, etc.  I've just got to do the bathroom today and also the bird room. 

Now, to keep up with it. I'm going to try the suggestions here.  If anyone has more please let me know. 

I'm also wondering, where does everyone keep dog things, like it the dogs bed right in the living room or where??  What about the water bowl?  I'm trying to simplify the routine.  But, also as much as I love her I think her stuff is just taking over.  I'd like it to look like a home rather than Willow's huge dog house. 

Good for you - my room is still a mess lol.

Maggie's stuff is pretty confined to a storage room in the basement (referred to as the dog room now) where I have various containers for supplies and dog food. There's a peg board on the wall for hanging grooming tools and other odds and ends. Maggie's food bowls are down in that room next to the food container.

Maggie has a crate in my room, as well as her water bowl. There's a bed in the corner of the living room for her. A few toys are generally lying about in my room and the living room, but generally on her bed or the outskirts of the room.

berserker does not have a real dog bed, he used to, and it was in the living room, but he would only lay on it if someone else did with him. he has a blanket, it is usually on or under him, or thrown wherever. his food and water dishes are in the kitchen. his toys are in his toy basket.

you ought to consider doing what i want to do..

 hire a hot looking swedish maid with a skimpy little maid outfit ..

 to tell you the truth tho,if i had one of those,i wouldnt care what the house looked like...

my wife wont wear skimpy little maid outfits for me anymore..lol

As long as you don't put on the swedish maid outfit.
 

Ah! Dog stuff.  Max sleeps on our bed at night and on the couch during the day.  His food and water dish are along the back side of the counter, sort of between the kitchen and dining room. I try to keep his leash in a drawer, but it's usually lying on the dining room table.  His toys are wherever he leaves them and his hair is everywhere.
 
Joyce

Geez, we have dog stuff everywhere. There's a crate, food and water bowls, and the dog food container in the dining room. There's a bed, toy box and assorted toys littering the floor in the living room. Another bed in the master bedroom, a bed and water bowl in the office, and a bed and water bowl in one guest bedroom.

As far as everything else, since I'm gone 7:30 am - 11 pm 4 days a week and doing homework the majority of the time I'm home I thank goodness that I have an SO who hates clutter and mess. He does all the picking up, and vacuuming. Things get dusty from time to time, but that's a pretty quick job to do on a weekend afternoon.

I hope that between the 12 dogs,8 cats and 5 kids,any people that are brave enough to drop by unannounced are too distracted to notice the mess.i vaccume and sweep twice a day,do atleast 5or 6loads of laundry a day and run the dishwasher 3 times a day but there is just no keeping up.I suppose i could get more done if i spent less time on forums []

Lori, it's so funny that I saw your thread tonight.  I said to DH tonight:  "Why is it that I didn't sit down all day, all my time was doing things on my To Do List, yet I still feel like I accomplished nothing when I look around me?"  This weekend was especially chore-heavy because our houseguest left a couple days ago after 2 weeks here (so, time to strip beds, clean the bathroom, vacuum, etc.)
 
Honestly, I don't know how all of you with families stay on top of things.  We don't have any children, and we don't have any pets right now either.  Yet there is ALWAYS something to be done around here.  I consider myself quite organized, and I definitely "clean as I go" (wiping up counters, stove, as I use them for example).  But as fast as I cross something off the list, something else gets put on it!
 
My inclination is to be kind of a clean freak, so it's hard for me to let things go too long.  However, I no longer worry about things I can't see everyday, like dust on high surfaces (one good thing about being short!).  The spare room never gets dusted or vacuumed unless someone is coming to visit.  Basically, I try to vacuum a couple times per week, I keep the bathrooms and kitchen sink/counters regularly clean, and I change the towels and sheets once a week.  Everything else waits until I have extra time.
 
As for being overrun by dog things, I can totally relate to that.  Tonka's kennel took up one half of a room (it was 4' x 5' x 6'), and he had a huge elevated feeding tray, as well as blankets, toy basket, a pile of leashes and collars, foot-wiping towels at both doors, etc.  Even though I've put all these things into one corner now, my own clutter still drowns me -- I always have things in process on the counters - mail, letters, catalogs, notes and lists, etc.  My secret is I have one empty shelf in a cupboard where I dump all of it when someone is coming over!

Lori, I painted that quote on a sign and hung it on the fence outside my kitchen window. It really helps me to read the quote as I am doing dishes. I just take a deep breath, and relax when I read it.
 
Dog Stuff: I completely know what you mean about the human house starting to look like a big doghouse. The dogs have a bed in the kitchen. They don't use it much, they cats lay on the dog bed most of the time. It matches my kitchen so I don't mind it. Toys are in a basket between the wall and a recliner chair. You can't really see the basket, but the dogs know where it's at. The dogs eat outside in their dog palace. (It's a shed made just for them.) I have their raised feeders inside the "palace", so even in cold weather the half hour or so they are outside is not a big deal. It just makes clean-up much easier for me as saints tend to drop about half their food on the floor. (Those droopy lips!!) If the weather is really bad and they eat inside, I feed them on towels. This way I can just gather the towel up when they are finished, and shake the dropped food into the garbage can. Grooming tools and extra leashes are also stored in shelves in the dog palace.The leashes I use daily are on a hook by the back door. Water bowl is right inside the coat closet by the back door. I just leave the door partially open, and keep a towel under the bowl for easy clean-up.
 
Cleaning supplies: I keep a full set of cleaning supplies in each bathroom, and under the kitchen sink. Having the supplies handy, makes it easier to me to clean quickly. Keeping at least clean-up wipes in each bathroom, saves a little extra time for quick clean-ups.
 
What I would love to do is this: Buy either an cheapo wal-mart entertainment center (the kind with full doors), or a decent 2nd hand one and make it into the "ultimate dog storage center". I could store food, treats, leashes, grooming equip, extra toys and blankets inside. Leashes could be hung on hooks inside the doors, other items could be stored in baskets. It would be so handy to have everything all in one place. I could even re-paint it to match my house, or give it a cute doggy theme.
 
Also dog beds can be given slipcovers to match your home decor. Just buy a few yards of fabric, or use sheets that match your bedroom set, and sew a simple dogbed cover. It can have velcro on one end, so it removes easily for washing.

I hope that between the 12 dogs,8 cats and 5 kids,any people that are brave enough to drop by unannounced are too distracted to notice the mess.i vaccume and sweep twice a day,do atleast 5or 6loads of laundry a day and run the dishwasher 3 times a day but there is just no keeping up.I suppose i could get more done if i spent less time on forums

 
OMG, do you have anytime to yourself?
 
My hat is off, I would completely lose it, and would have to be carted off to the nuthouse[]

Lori, I just try to do a little bit every day to keep up and I spend several hours every Sunday doing my "non-negotiable" chores.  I've decided what chores are non-negotiable and I make sure I get them done every week - the rest, I just do the best I can and not sweat-it if they slip.  My once weekly,  non-negotiable chores are:  vacuuming, nose prints - from the TV and floor level windows, kitchen floor, toilets.  That's it.  If NOTHING else gets done all week, I can live with it.  DH will help but it's not consistent, and he is also making new messes along the way so..  

Oh my god, I'm starting to feel like a total slob compared to some of you. Dusting high surfaces???? My only non-negiotable weekly chores are laundry (yes, 1x/wk) and... well, that's it. I do things like cleaning bathrooms and floors more like once every 2 weeks. I don't have kids and Russell doesn't shed much, I just feel like nothing ever gets very dirty (and if it does I clean it). But maybe I'm just gross, LOL.
 
Dog stuff... bowls on the kitchen floor, "stuff" all goes in a big kitchen cupboard. His bed is in his crate, which is the one thing we own that crates a little "space issue" - it's pretty big and we have a king-sized bed so they're kind of jammed in there.

This is an interesting topic for me also.  I just whined this weekend about spending the majority of Saturday cleaning (again).  Then yesterday I ran errands. It's just the 2 of us, but somehow we manage to make a mess in at least the master and one guest bdrm.  I use the guest bathroom during the week, so I always have both to clean from top to bottom.  With dog hair flying literally everywhere these days, I have to vacuum the entire house and although, like Tracy,  I don't clean those high places either, I feel like I should, so it nags at me.  My DH and I are both kind of clean freaks, so he helps, but since he's been so majorly busy the last few months, I've been doing it all...and I'm tired.  When I come in on Monday and my boss says "did you have a nice weekend?", I always say "yes", but inside I'm thinking how little I did in the way of fun.  He and his wife have a housekeeper that comes in every Friday and I'm really starting to think about doing that, even if it's only every other week.
 
Oh, and dog beds.  I have a bed and dog blanket in the family room, a dog bed in the office, one next to our bed and an extra blanket I pull out and put on the couch in the evenings.  We also have one for each dog for outside too.

ORIGINAL: jones

Oh my god, I'm starting to feel like a total slob compared to some of you. Dusting high surfaces???? My only non-negiotable weekly chores are laundry (yes, 1x/wk) and... well, that's it. I do things like cleaning bathrooms and floors more like once every 2 weeks. I don't have kids and Russell doesn't shed much, I just feel like nothing ever gets very dirty (and if it does I clean it). But maybe I'm just gross, LOL.

 
Dusting high surfaces?  HAHA - I literally have NEVER dusted a high surface and only dust low surfaces about twice a year.   Laundry is negotiable but only up until 2 weeks - that's my dirty towel limit!   Honestly, I only do the stuff that really bugs me.  I have MUCH better things to do with my time than clean!    Slick does shed alot so sometimes I'll set up a competition with the boys.  I'll send them each around the house with a Swifer and whoever produces the most hair wins.  
 
Doggie stuff... bowls in the kitchen, dog food in a kitchen cabinet, toys in toybox in living room, dog bed in bedroom, leashes on hook in front hall.  It doesn't feel too dog housey, I don't think.