Keep your dog off the furniture for cheap!

Keeping Scrubs off the furniture has always been an issue in our house. But both JB and I decided early on that we didn't want the dog hair, dirt, or smells on our couches. 

In the past, we have simply loaded up our couch, love seat, and chair with a gazillion toys and books before we left the house or went to bed. Or, we'd block him from that particular room with a gate. But not only does this get old, it looks cruddy. I really dislike coming home to couches covered with toys that my kids had just put away.

Not only that, but he would constantly figure out a way to move the toys. If you didn't stack them just right, you'd find him asleep on things that you'd think were uncomfortable. Or he'd have knocked a bunch of things off the furniture to make room for his big ol' hairy self. And his white hairs do NOT just brush off the furniture. They wind themselves into the fibers, and you find yourself trying to get them off for weeks. 

I did a lot of research to figure out if there was something (1) easy (2) clean looking and, as is always the case with me (3) cheap. They definitely make pet furniture deterrent's, some of which are designed to train the dog with noises or shocks. However, I have always found that these things stop working or break, and, Scrubs is smart enough to stop following the rule as soon as the deterrent is removed. 

I found rubber pet mats on Amazon, but they were expensive, and I when I read the reviews, I found quite a few people saying, "They work, but I feel cheated. These are just those plastic mats turned upside down."

So that's what I did! I bought those plastic mats and turned them upside down. You know which ones I am talking about. I think we have all accidentally stepped on one of these at some point and found ourself nearly in tears.

So for $30, I got a long enough mat to cover all three of our big pieces of furniture. I simply fold it up like you see in this picture below:

and slide it under the couch when not in use. And then, when in use, while it still looks like the couch on Everybody Loves Raymond, it definitely doesn't feel as cluttery:

Here's a link to the site I used on Amazon.

P.S. To read an update about this item, click here.