Those of you with too many pets/children...

[Karbea]

How are you keeping your kitchen floor clean? My floor is caked in mud. When it first started raining I religiously wiped up after them, but I was doing it all the time, and eventually the weather and animals coming and going got the better of me. It's now really bad, as I've left it for a couple of days, today I'm going to clean it, but I know within and hr it'll look like I've not bothered.

How are you keeping your floors clean...

Desperate of Buckinghamshire!

I don't. I sweep frequently and hope that I'm doing wonders for the toddler's immune system

This is our first winter in the country and the mud is unbelievable. The dogs are my biggest offenders. Firstly, I've reassessed my standards and decided that once a day is enough. I have a couple of washable rugs, a couple of large towels that I change daily. A full clean is not necessary so I have one of those direct to floor cleaners that I use with a damp mop. I have a babygate up to restrict dogs to kitchen.
I try to ignore it until all the dog walking is done and the ducks are sorted out for the day as those tasks generate the most mud. So I clean the floor about 3.45pm as I just then need a quick trip to the duck pen to lock them up when it gets dark, and the dogs just need to pop out for a quick wee.
In the long term I shall build a badass big patio area and a small lean to to become the 'mud room'. In the meantime I am remember in how lovely it was last June when we moved in, and thinking 'this too shall pass'.
Yes it will.

Springlamb... I like the sound of your life!

About the only sensible thing we've got in this house is a lobby before you reach the kitchen which is fully carpeted with coir matting. It comes up fine when vacuumed.

yes Betty that is a good idea. At the main front door we've taken up some of the wood flooring and replaced with very thick coir mattings so the first 1.5m of hall is coir. It's much safer as there's no mat to slip or trip on, the hall floor is much cleaner and it does hoover up well, it looks quite 'fitted' too. I used 2.5cm deep coir so it's totally flush with the wood floor.
I didn't even know it came in different depths till I came here.
Puppies, we are rural Kent and it WILL be lovely in just a few weeks (my mantra!). But we are on the most awful clay, parts of the land are 5 or 6 inches under water.
Could be worse. I worry for Somerset, it has been so relentless for them for nearly six weeks now.

The most effective thing we ever did was to build a dry stone wall with a gate in it to close off the flagged & cobbled area,immediately outside the back door, from the rest of the garden. That way the dogs don't have constant access to the garden if they just need to go out for a wee & come in with at worst wet feet.
We also keep wellies in the back porch to change into to go down into the fields where the ducks, geese & hens live so never tread mud in as far as the kitchen.
Other than that we have hard floor in the kitchen & halls, that get swept daily & mopped as needed,with washable rugs.

We have two routes in from the muddy areas - there's a utility room with doormat, etc, and there's a little conservatory playroom with washable floor so kids can come in and out of the garden without trooping muck through the kitchen. So I think the answer is to create some sort of buffer zone (or have dark floors ).

We are considering having an extension which will mean we have a longish walkway into our utility room and I was stressing about how id match u p my cream tiles... I think I'll just have a long run of coir matting.
This winter I'll just have to suffer!

When my wheelchair using daughter moved into a bungalow we had threshold carpeting, like they have in shops, installed in the hall. Twice the length of the chair so she could run back and forth over it a few times to clean her wheels. It worked pretty well, maybe it would work for animals. We asked the carpet shop to source and fit it.

We have the wheelchair problem too! Only the back door is ramped and initially there was no path or patio so with the first rain we were digging him out every Friday when he came home from college. I beg stole and borrowed enough slabs to build a makeshift path and can't wait till spring when I can get my badass patio laid!
At the moment if you stand still in the garden for more than 10 seconds you sink down a few inches.

We have Karndean all through downstairs, and at the patio doors we have a large dirt trapper mat. There is deck outside the door, but as the chickens like to stand there and taunt the dog knock on the glass its rather messier than I'd like.

We have crocs by the back door for chicken pen opening/ rabbit feeding purposes which come straight off. Wellies live on the front doorstep.

I then have a dolphin mop so I can whizz round the floors v quickly and with minimal wet floor.

But mud is taking over my life, between the cats, dog, rabbit, chickens and pony its not suprising...

tiny house in the countryside+dogs = towels hanging on the door to flung on the floor for when they wander in over 3 door mats that still don't absorb enough!