Organising Pet belongings

I’m guessing that most people don’t have quite as many pets as we do with 8 horses, 5 dogs, 3 cats, 2 bunnies, poultry and fish, but it is easy to rack up many belongings for our precious animals.

As always with getting organised, the first step is to take stock. Gather all of the category from wherever it is spread around your home and bring it together into one place so that you can easily see it. Sub categorise it and then see how much you have of each.

As you will know by now, decluttering is the first and most important step in getting organised. Never organise what you can discard. Make sure that any old medicines or flea treatments that are past their sell by date are discarded and that you have an appropriate number of each item. With the proviso that it is always easier to organise less, how many you will decide to keep will be entirely up to you and what brings you Joy. For me, Joy is generally brought by having fewer items because it means that I can keep them tidy more easily. I will admit that pets themselves are an area where I lean towards excess but they bring me so much Joy! For other people it might be clothes, or handbags, or craft materials, for me it is animals. All my life, I dreamed of dogs in the kitchen and horses in the garden (and cats wherever they want to be…) and now I have it and I’m living my best life.

Once you have decided what to keep and what to let go (try rescue centres if you are not sure where to donate to), it is time to organise the things that you are keeping. Store like with like and try to store vertically where possible. Keep the things that you use daily, such as leads, brushes and food, in easy reach. The things that are used less frequently, such as clippers, and medical treatments, can be put more out of the way. Remember to ask yourself where you would look for them when trying to decide where they should go.

This time of year is also a good time to check my horses’ rugs for wear and cleanliness and decide which need to go to be cleaned, mended and reproofed. The same goes if you have dogs that need to wear coats.