House & Home

Making a Clean Start #DysonClean

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! For Christmas we visited with both sides of the family this year and ended up with two yummy dinners, stuffed silly with turkey at Grandma’s and barbecued duck at my dad’s. Of course the girls were over the moon excited about opening their presents, and they loved spending time with their cousins too. Tee finally got those roller blades she’s been hankering after for months, and I was really impressed that it only took half an hour or so for her to get the hang of it! In comparison, we kept New Year’s pretty low-key with a movie, popcorn, and an early countdown.

The holidays are officially over, but since winter break started late this year, we still had a week before going back to school. I decided to take advantage of the time at home to clean up all the Christmas chaos and do some deep cleaning to start the new year with a clean slate.

6 steps to making a clean start in the new year #DysonClean #ad

1. Take down the Christmas tree

First things first – boxing up the ornaments and taking down the tree. It’s always sad when we take down the tree, but it’s nice to have the space back in my living room. We have an artificial tree so it gets stored in the basement. If you have a real tree, check your city’s tree pick-up schedule and how to properly prepare it for pick-up, or take it to a local tree chipping event.

There’s something so sad about a naked tree…

2. Deep clean pet areas

We love our dog Kallie, but nobody ever said that pets make for a clean house. She’s a furry shedding machine, and her food area in the laundry room needs to be scrubbed down regularly to keep things sanitary and get rid of pet odours. Our Dyson Ball Animal 2‘s articulating hard floor tool gets all the bits of dog food, crumbs, and fur off the vinyl floor before I wash it, and the crevice tool gets everything out from between the dryer and the wall too.

Then it’s an extra thorough vacuuming of “her” chair in our bedroom where she likes to snooze. That fur builds up quickly!

Look at Kallie’s happy face. Do you think she cares that her super long hair tangles around the brush bar on our vacuum? Nope. Fortunately, the Dyson Animal 2 comes with a tangle-free turbine tool that works great for those really furry areas. Instead of winding around the bar, the hair gets swept in by the counter-rotating brushes. The brush heads are flexible too so they stay in contact with the fabric even around those curves on her chair.

3. Clean out the pantry

On to the kitchen! We took everything out of the pantry, wiped down all the shelves, vacuumed the dust and some spilled oats out of the corners, and rotated the food to put the oldest stuff in the front. I also got rid of all the expired food and while we were in there, we put together a small box of (non-expired) cans and non-perishable food to donate to the food bank.

4. Box up old toys

This one was hard, but necessary. We sorted through and boxed up old toys to make room for the new ones coming in from Christmas. Some of the toys were earmarked for the girls’ younger cousin, some will be donated to our local women’s shelter, and a few were sold to Toy Traders, our local toy store with a big used toy section.

Tee and Kay were not big fans of this task, but I found it helped to remind them that another child will get just as much enjoyment from their old toys as they have.

5. Sort through clothing

We’re still working on this, but I was long overdue to sort through all our clothes and separate out everything that’s out of season or outgrown to make more room in the dressers. We’ll store the summer clothes and donate the stuff that doesn’t fit.

6. Clean floors

Finally, I did a complete vacuum of all the floors, including moving the furniture to get everything underneath. I’ve been using my Dyson Ball Animal 2 for the last few weeks and LOVE the super suction and all the tools it comes with. The active base plates on the cleaner head self-adjust across all my different floor surfaces to get my floors clean the first time, and the combination tool works great for vacuuming dust out of the heat registers and any stray cobwebs in high corners. The round ball at the base of the vacuum makes it really easy to maneuver so Tee can help out too!

And for those of you wondering about my ongoing quest to groom the dog with the vacuum? I’m crushed that Kallie hasn’t agreed to go along with it yet. I can brush her with the groom tool’s retractable teeth, and I can run the vacuum in the same room, but we’re still working on bringing the two tasks together. She enjoys being brushed with the groom tool though, and she’s sure getting a lot of treats out of the deal!

Learn more about this fantastic vacuum cleaner at Dyson and connect on Facebook or Twitter.

Disclosure: I am participating in the PTPA Brand Ambassador Program with Dyson and received compensation as part of my affiliation with this group. Nevertheless, all opinions expressed are honest and my own. Your experience may differ.

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7 Comments

  • I love my Dyson!! I have another model with out the fancy pet attachment, but I don’t think our cats would let me vacuum them any way SO… Any way, I just wanted to say your dog is so cute. Good for you to get your children to help too. Lol I wish mine would help clean up more!

  • We are waiting for a good sale on these as our vacuum is on its last leg. With 3 dogs this would be a lifesaver especially because they are all over the furniture. There have been so many people I know who just love this vacuum.

  • I have 2 Dyson and I love them both. One is a cordless stick vacuum, for a quick clean up, the stairs and my car. The other one is a canister one for the heavy work shall we say. It’s amazing the amount of dirt they both collect from what looks like a clean carpet.

  • This is a great blog! I can totally relate to your post. I have a kid too a furry German shepherd. I particularly like the fact that you engage your kid in helping clean the house. It can be enjoyable when its done together and not let them think its a chore. I haven’t tried using a vacuum on my dog – this is a good idea! I should try that.

  • Never had a Dyson but they look out of this world, bet it’s a good vacuum with lots of suction power.