Organizing and decluttering the homestead

[Chic Rustler]

My personal nightmare is papers. I hate to throw anything away until I've looked it over, and I don't have a good spot for those papers you just need to have... you know, like the latest copy of the car and house insurances, the receipt for the car tires in case you get a leak while it's still under warranty... not to mention magazines with an interesting article that you didn't have time to read yet. Anyway, stuff doesn't get tossed until I can look at it and decide whether we need to keep it or not, and in the meantime it all starts taking over. Then someone says they are coming over so I grab all the papers and throw them in a box and stash it in the bedroom or the pantry, and of course once they are out of sight I forget about them and the next batch starts to slowly take over. The worst is when the occasional bill gets shuffled in there and suddenly you get a polite call from the gas company asking if you would like to pay your bill over the phone please?

You better watch out. I knew a lady with the same problem. 3 years later she has trails to walk in now. Stuff piled everywhere.

 

[NH Homesteader]

My dogs would take exception to the idea that living indoors is a poor environment for dogs. My alano in particular. They are perfectly happy being warm and spoiled and they have no interest in sleeping outside.

 

[treerooted]

My dogs sleep with me when DH is at work overnight. I keep my pillow away from them though, and have an extra blanket on top of the bed that protects my good blanket lol!

They think the couch and chairs are theirs also. They're brats.

Yes, our Bernese/Cattle Dog mix is a princess as well. I've tried various off the chair routines, but most of the time it's not worth the hassle
She sometimes barks at night, not sure why, but we can't always stop her, so we put a sheet on top of our bed as well so she could lie there if she wanted. But we'd prefer not to, and it's actually just something that's happened very recently.

We keep all animals out of our guest room. But some of our friends like sleeping with our animals lol, so that's their choice; we wash the sheets between guests anyway.

Luckily, most people who come to our house have indoor animals of their own, and/or are easy going. But I like to vacuum fairly regularly because I like to keep hair down.

We have an indoor cat, so it's not a huge difference to have the dog inside as well. Not sure if our next dog will be indoors or outdoors. But ya, the winters can be super cold. Also, just last week a dog was on his deck and was attacked by coyotes just one street away from us. Dog survived, I was sent some pictures, poor animal was ripped up bad in the back.

On the decluttering front, I have a pet basket at the front door that needs to be organized. Add it to the list!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It's an awful habitat for the animal and an awful habitat for the human when they both have to share living quarters inside a home

That's a pretty broad statement that is simply not true in so many instances.

There are many breeds of dogs that would not survive in an outdoor environment. Tiny little dogs that are hawk and/or coyote bait. Pug nosed breeds that can't tolerate the heat. There are specific breeds that have been bred for specific traits that were never intended to be outside fulltime.

There are also many folks who absolutely need their animals to be with them. Service dogs for example.

Not really sure why one would compare a domestic dog to a zoo animal. Apples and oranges.

Can't make a statement like that and expect it to be taken as fact. However, it's your opinion and you are entitled to it.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Aw poor dog! I wouldn't have a pet outdoor dog either. The only dog I would keep outside would be a LGD, who had preferably a dog buddy, and was bonded to the goats and had access to the barn. But, it's COLD here!

My alano might wear a jacket to go outside in winter. Tough hunting dog that she is! Lol!!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

DH has been asking for a little inside dog for quite some time. Ya never know!

My LGD's are lovin' the outdoors right now. It's not uncommon to find them all snuggled up and surrounded by goats on all sides, lol. They especially gravitate to the older goats and/or the lowest ranked goats. I guess that's one advantage to being low goat - you get to snuggle with the dogs!

 

[sumi]

so many will not get a shelter animal because of it all. Then they whine about the shelters being crowded and no one adopting an animal.

Exactly what I was thinking! They desperately need to rehome animals, but then put those restrictions on it. Honestly, how many people keep their dogs indoors? Especially big dogs, which many of these are. I have a massive backyard compared to many, so I have plenty space for even a few big dogs to live happily, but I won't qualify, because I won't keep the dogs in my not-very-big house? BS.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I don't know anyone that keeps their dogs outside. The few I've seen outside aren't taken care of very well so I kind of get where they're coming from. Most people who have outside only dogs aren't building them nice buildings to stay warm and dry and fencing in areas for them! The ones that do shouldn't suffer because of the others but that is hard to weed out.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I do have problems with a dog that's chained to a rickety dog house and gets no attention or interaction.

 

[sumi]

If/when I get an (outside only) dog I'd give it a warm sheltered spot to sleep and hang out in. But I don't like sharing my furniture, kitchen area etc with animals. I'm fussy like that. Our dogs always stayed outside, but they had a section in our garage to sleep in, well sheltered from rain, wind etc and they had blankets in there. It wasn't neither extremely hot or cold where we lived though. @NH Homesteader with your winter temperatures, I can understand your preference!