NaBloCleanPoMo Day #1 Magic Erase the Wall

One of the things that I have had to adjust to most in our new house is having dogs.  I love the dogs, don't get me wrong, but dogs are much harder to clean up after.  Thankfully, J takes care of the grossest clean up (poop scooping), but vacuuming and keeping things in the house clean usually fall to me.  I've mostly gotten a handle on managing dog hair in the house (by realizing that I will never win the War against dog hair...but I can win battles!), but one thing that still baffles me is the dirt on the walls.  Ok, it's not too baffling, since I know Felina rubs up against the wall ALL the time.

She is an itchy dog, and I think she thinks the wall scratches her.  It also deposits lovely dirt from the baseboard up to where the top of her back hits the wall.  Case in point:

Of course, when I am home and see her walk back and forth rubbing on the wall, I scold her.  But, I have visions that as soon as we leave the house, she spends her day walking up and down the wall.  Probably not, but it sure looks like it.  As I was cleaning the wall tonight, I remembered that when we were giving the dogs a bath this week, I wondered why Felina wasn't as dirty as Kyra.  As I was cleaning the wall, I realized that Felina probably deposits her dirt on the wall each day!

The only thing I've found that helps get rid of the dirt is the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  It isn't perfect, but it helps.  I know eventually I'll probably rub most of the paint off the wall trying to get it clean, but the walls need to be painted in a few years anyway!

Here is a wide angle view of the wall:

So I got out my trusty Magic Eraser and went to work.

Yuck!

Felina was no help.  I think she was looking at me thinking, "As soon as you're done, I'm rubbing up against that wall again!"

And the finished product.  It is still drying a bit in this photo, but I do think I will need to go back over it at some point.  Maybe tomorrow.  But, it is much better than before!  For comparison again...

Before...

And after!

Thus completes NaBloCleanPoMo Day #1!  Stay tuned for tomorrow's project...

128/365 Clean

After a good post-trip vacuum, my floors no longer have dog-hair tumbleweeds rolling down them.

99/365

Kray-Kray misses the mini-human visitors we had all week.

92/365 Helpful Doggies

This is what happens when you carve a chicken on a smallish counter.

71/365 Doggie Baths

Felina gets a bath.  Kyra got one too...but she was moving too much to catch a picture!

59/365 Waiting

My camera battery died...so the next few pictures are with my BlackBerry.  Here, Felina is waiting patiently for J to come home from the hospital...

47/365 Felina (and her healing ear)

16/365 Dead Bunny

When it's near the end of the day and your camera has been on the 3rd floor of your house all day...what do you do to make sure you keep up with the 365 project?  When in doubt, take a picture of your pet.  So here is Kyra, in the midst of her famous "Dead Bunny" pose, complete with crossed paws.  Nice.

11/365 Christmas Tree

Yes.  It's January 11th.  And yes, our tree is still up.  So, we decided to get a photo in front of the tree with that nifty self-timer invention.  Hopefully we'll have the tree down this weekend...

7/365 New Family

Crazy Kyra