Owning a dog is a ton of fun—that’s the whole point of pet ownership! One of the only downsides to getting a dog is that it becomes more challenging to keep your home clean. After all, dogs aren’t very concerned about whether they leave hair on your sofa. Thankfully, there are ways dog owners can keep their homes clean. In this post, we’ll share four such tips.

1. Create a Mudroom

Taking your dog on a walk is necessary for giving your dog time to exercise, but it’s also an opportunity for mess. Your dog may love to roll in the dirt or splash in puddles, which means you’ll soon have dirty pawprints all over your floors. The easiest way to keep your floors clean is to create a buffer zone near the door where you can wipe your dog off with a towel and clean up their paws.

2. Get a Cleaning Robot

If vacuuming up all that dog hair is just too much work, make someone—or something—else do it. The simplest option is to get a cleaning robot that can keep your floors tidy for you. You can even set your robot to vacuum at certain times each day so you don’t have to remember to start the device. What could be easier?

3. Get Washable Rugs

Rugs are an easy way to protect your floors from tiny scratches left behind by doggie nails, but what do you do when the rugs get dirty? The trick is to buy rugs that are machine washable. And don’t just get rugs from the home store that say they’re machine washable—find rugs specifically designed for machine washing. These rugs usually come with a detachable pad so they’re not too bulky in the wash.

4. Teach Your Dog To Wipe Its Paws

Did you know you can teach your dog to wipe its paws on the doormat? That’s right! It’s not even that difficult. All you have to do is put a treat under the mat until they start pawing at it, then praise your dog and give them the treat.

We hope you find these four ways dog owners can keep their homes clean useful. And if you let your home get a little messy, don’t worry! We won’t tell anyone.