This post is sponsored by HomeRight. All opinions are 100% my own.
You guys know that we’re HomeRight Ambassadors, and that we’re HUGE fans of their SteamMachine Plus Steam Mop. We gave one away in January, and Amy showed us how you can use it to disinfect your house and kill flu germs {here}, and I showed you my horrifically dirty floors {here}.
Be sure to read to the end of this post, since as usual, there’s a giveaway!
It’s getting warm here in Savannah, so I’ve been throwing open the windows to air the house out, and getting started on my spring cleaning. You know that we have two rescued golden retrievers (who shed buckets of fur every single day) and that I live in the dustiest house ever, so this is truly an uphill battle and at times I despair. However, there is a method to my cleaning madness and things that I do in a particular order to make housecleaning with pets as streamlined as possible.
One of the many reasons that I love my SteamMachine Plus is that I prefer to clean without using harsh chemicals. My family is sensitive to them and our senior dog, Sunny, has crazy allergies that make him the most expensive dog alive, but that’s a story for another day. But even though I don’t want to be pouring bleach on everything, I still want to disinfect all of the surfaces in our house.
I’ve started putting a drop of essential oil in with the water and the house smells wonderful when I’m finished cleaning, which is great because otherwise things tend to smell like–you guessed it–dog!
Why I love my SteamMachine:
1. Uses tap water (inexpensive!)
2. Kills germs and dust mites
3. Chemical free cleaning for family with allergies and sensitivities.
Now, here’s how I spring clean my house, top to bottom, using my SteamMachine Plus.
My first step is to dust the room from the top to the bottom. Pet hair floats, but I’m always a little surprised when I find it on top of bookshelves and in chandeliers! By starting at the top, everything drifts down to the floor and I can sweep or vacuum it up. I also dust and vacuum my cold air return vents. If they’re really grimy, then I use the brush attachment on my SteamMachine to clean them. Even though I change our air filters twice a month, LOTS of dust still accumulates!
Pets are low to the ground, and I find that my baseboards are usually pretty dusty and dirty. Sunny demonstrates:
I use the brush attachment on my vacuum cleaner to get the worst of it up, and then I use the terry cloth bonnet on my SteamMachine Plus to get up what’s left.
I like to wash my curtains (the ones that are washable) in the rooms where the dogs spend time. I hang them to dry while they’re still damp, and then if the wrinkles don’t fall out on their own, I use the SteamMachine with the bonnet to steam them out:
I have white slipcovers in our living room, and they get washed at least once a month. On our furniture that isn’t slipcovered, though, I vacuum it and steam it (if the fabric permits) with a drop or two of essential oil in the water tank. Any spots can be steamed, too. An added bonus is that steam kills dust mites–yuck!
Harley has a bed and a crate, so in the spring I unzip the cover from his bed and throw it in the wash. His crate gets vacuumed out and I use the brush attachment on the SteamMachine to get up any spots or stains on the plastic mat inside. If you’d like to see how I slipcovered his GIANT dog crate, visit {this} post.
I’m not neglecting Sunny in this step, but he chooses just to sleep on the rug, which leads me to:
I vacuum pretty much every single day, and it still looks like I never do because goldens shed like mad. But then I roll up the rugs and realize that we live in filth, because this is what’s underneath:
That’s also why I prefer hard-surface flooring with a rug on top, because if that was carpet, I couldn’t roll it up and vacuum underneath it. Yuck!
My last cleaning step is to vacuum all the floors, and then use the SteamMachine to clean and disinfect them. The carpet glider attachment works great on rugs and carpets, and the regular terry pad (or the chenille one that you can get for free–see below) is my choice for hardwoods.
Aahh, better! Look at that shine!
Now that the house is clean, I can go outside and enjoy spring!
Here’s your chance to win your own HomeRight SteamMachine Plus Mop, and if you read to the bottom, I’ll also link to the other HomeRight Ambassadors who are giving them away right now, too, so you can increase your chances of winning.
And if you need one of these babies right now, you can buy one on Amazon:
Now through March 31st, if you buys a HomeRight SteamMachine Plus Steam Mop, you can fill out a rebate form for a free chenille mop pad {just click here or on the photo for details}.
If you want to increase your chances of winning, several other HomeRight ambassadors are also giving away SteamMachines this month:
My Repurposed Life
Good luck!
Disclaimer: we are HomeRight brand ambassadors, and every month we review a product and give one away. Although we are compensated for our time, all opinions are 100% our own. This post contains affiliate links; if you make a purchase after clicking through these links, we will earn a small commission. You don’t pay a cent more than you would otherwise.
Thanks for stopping by–
I have the same dog issues and I would say the dirtest room is the great room. This is where Willow spends the majority of her time during the day.
I’d love to get one of these. I have a long-haired cat who willingly shares her fur with us!
We just bought a 135 lb. English Mastiff and because of all this crazy weather, he’s been spending A LOT of time in the house. I never knew one animal could make so many messes!
The laundry room. Every time I clean the lint from my dryer it goes everywhere.
My dirtiest room would probably be my daughters room. She is away at college so I don’t think about going in there to much but the dog loves to laying and hang out on her bed.
I too have a dog that sheds, so I feel your pain!
I’d love this! Our two beagles shed like maniacs. I am constantly vacuuming/sweeping/swiffering/mopping our hardwood and tile floors to keep them clean. I’d say those are FOR SURE the dirtiest things in our house.
i’m amazed by all this does! What a fantastic giveaway!
We have a dog and my backyard is farmland . . . double whammy!
I also have two dogs and it seems like the shaded fur gathers in the corners. So sadly I guess my whole house is dirty?
The garage is probably the dirtiest but the oven would be the first place I’d use this machine to clean.
The dirtiest part of my house would probably be the corner of the laundry room where the cat litter boxes (yes, plural) are kept. One of my 3 kitties is a senior who sometimes misses the mark. Nothing worse than the smell of cat urine and I am constantly cleaning/sanitizing the area around the boxes.
the finished (but mostly un-used) basement.
Having two labs myself, I know how much dog hair gets everywhere (including the inside of our freezer…what?!?). Our dirtiest room is definitely the entryway between our garage and kitchen, everybody always uses this door and drags in all the dirty things from outside!
We have three Weimaraner rescues and they shed with the seasons! They also track in dirt from outside, so it is daily job cleaning the floors etc.!
I have 4 kids! Of course I need one of these! The dirtiest part would have to be the mud room (hello spring and muddy puddles!)!
My Scottie dog may only be 20 lbs, but he sheds like a retriever! The hardwood, carpet, and brick floors in my house would definitely benefit from one of these!
This would work wonders on our wood floors! Thanks for the opportunity!
I would say that the dirtiest part of my house is my floors. Thanks for the giveaway!
Floors! I have 2 dogs and the snow is melting quickly…
My dirtiest room is my laundry! It’s where the dog stays when we’re gone, and I REALLY need to move the washer and dryer and clean all the dust and dirt again.
The entry ways into the house without a doubt! This would be a fantastic way to keep it all clean. Thanks for the great giveaway opportunity!
With 3 dogs… I have a baseboard/molding problem as well.
One of my least favorite chores!!!!
With a dog and a cat the corners of the family room and the baseboards are probably the dirtiest with an overabundance of pet hair.
I have 2 cats – I feed them in the kitchen, so that floor gets pretty bad looking. To be able to steam clean the floors would be a dream!!
The dirtiest part of my home is the laundry room floor where everybody comes inside and takes off their boots.
Right now, my laundry room is the dirtiest part of my house. It is the one place I never seem to make time and really clean. I do little quick pick ups, but it needs a good cleaning 🙂
The family room is the dirtiest! you come right in to it from the garage and all the sand and dirt for the Northeast winter comes right in as well. This steam clean machines looks fabulous.
Floors, ugh! With two little kids and a St. Bernard living on 3.5 acres, we have quite a bit of dirt, mud, dust and grime that accumulates daily on the floor. Hate feeling like I need to use chemicals to have my house “clean”. Thank you for sharing I look forward to reading more.
Would love to try it in our house.
My kitchen sees the most action… children and dogs and cooking, oh my!
Our Australian Cattle Dog might give your Golden a run for his money on the dog hair!
The dirtiest part of my house is probably the kitchen. It is definitely the area of our house where we spend the most time!
Dirtiest room is the kitchen where my two fur babies hang out with me. Lots of mud and sand grind into the hardwood floors after numerous walks on the golf course! Thanks for turning me onto a great product!
My bathroom needs a good cleaning specially the grouts
We live in an apartment and while I do my best to keep it clean, I can’t help but think about how many other people have used our showers before us. I’d love to be able to steam out any previous tenant junk!
How can a 9 pound dog have 40 pounds of hair? I just received my home right steam cleaner yesterday and today I woke up to clean (for now) floors! But I have a vacation home… so I need another one asap!!! PS Your floors are gorgeous… and so are your pups!
I’d have to say the kitchen because I’m a pretty messy cook!
YES! I need one. Our chocolate lab sheds like crazy. I have learned to ignore it but this would be amazing! Your dogs are presh by the way. 🙂
My bathroom is the dirtiest room because of my husband and son!!! Boys can be such messy pigs lol! My 70 lb. Staffy isn’t half as messy as those two.
The dirtiest job of my house is my floors…I have a German Shepherd and an American Eskimo so it’s dog hair city at my house about an hour after I just cleaned.
Right now the dirtiest place is my sons bathroom
The dirtiest part of my house is the entryways. The collect dog hair and everything the dogs and kids bring in the house.
It’s the downstairs bathroom. My wife hates touching the toilets and I let things go a little too long between giving things more than cursory wipe downs – partly because once I do start I give things a really deep cleaning that takes a while – I’m bad at halfway cleaning.
I have a yellow lab that comes in and out of the back door a million times. my family room floors are a mess and need cleaning like every day.
not to mention my bathroom with my own hair shedding, lol
The tile floor in the entry
I am really trying to win this for my friend Wendi Perez who lives in Texas, her husband was just diagnosed with cancer and I really think this would help her tremendously with keeping the house clean for her husband so he won’t get sick.
My doggie room/porch needs a serious deep cleaning!
Definitely our living room! Between the dogs, the cat, the fireplace soot and my messy husband, it never seems to get free of grime! Thank goodness for hardwood floors in our sweet 100 year old house! 🙂
My bathrooms are the dirtiest place in the house.
I did some cleaning today… Would love to try a steam cleaner.
I just moved into a new house built in 1875 and I can’t even begin to list all the places where germs/grime have built up inside. I’m a bit skeeved out and daunted by the task of deep cleaning it all sans chemicals, but this SteamMachinePlus seems like a miracle machine!
My fourteen year old son’s room. Sometimes I open the door and just close it right back.
I really found so many new uses for this steam machine. It is a work-horse wonder. I’d start with my Jenn Aire and go from there!
Our floors . We live on a farm.
Oh how I would love this! I have four cats that are shedding winter coats now and a son with all his friends tramping in and out. Dirtiest areas? Probably floors. Thanks so much and I sure hope I win!!
Cheers, Donna from sunny Savannah
With two kids and a husband who works outdoors, the messiest place in my home is the hardwood floors as soon as you walk in the hallway by the front door.
i would have to say the kitchen floor. 5 fur-babies eating and drinking there. it screams for a deep clean lol
The dirtiest part of our home is definitely all of the floors. It is just so time consuming and labor intensive to keep all of the wood, travertine, and carpets as clean as I prefer them, but with 3 kids and two dogs… I just can’t keep up all of the time!! HomeRight is such an awesome company and produces the BEST products!
The dirtiest room in my house is the den. It’s also the ugliest so I never want to clean it!!! LOL. Winning this would be very helpful in motivating myself to clean/spruce up that ugly room!!!!
Probably my teenage sons bathroom
I have two cats that love snacks on the area rug in the kitchen, plus I have an open area kitchen/livingroom so most of the cat hair floats in all directions.
My garage is always the dirtiest.I have six kids and they go in and out that way.I do make them take off their shoes before coming in so that helps alot!
I have a 5 month old puppy who is having a blast digging holes in the yard then bounding inside loaded with mud…could sure use the HomeRight Steam Machine plus Mop!
Its always my kitchen! I have a big family and someone is always in there making a mess.
I know the problem with the hair very good! I clean every day but I honestly am so used to do it that I don’t feel bad anymore. After all they are such a bless in every house! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
The SteamMachine Plus Mop seems great! I also have pets and for me is always interesting to learn about new cleaning solutions. Thanks for sharing!