BISSELL® CrossWave® Pet Pro Review

I finally got the new BISSELL® CrossWave® Pet Pro Multi-Surface Wet Dry Vac and the short of it; I’m ecstatic! I’ve been using it for about seven months.

Pardon the unfinished wall. This is my kitchen in the raw!

Let me share with you why I still love this machine…

As my readers know, I have the original CrossWave, (the lime green one; Oh Bissell, please bring back that happy color!). (CrossWave review here.)  I purchased the “purple” Pet Pro a few months back and let me tell you, there is ZERO learning curve from the first one. The main difference is the pet hair strainer/debris catcher. I didn’t think it would be all that useful, but I was WRONG. It makes the job even easier. The strainer lifts out easily and I can just toss out the debris in the trashcan. It’s very useful and saves me from having to reach my hand into the container to scoop out the pet hair/solids.

Pet hair/debris strainer.

Quick recap: Parts copied from my other post on the original CrossWave. Check it out! 🙂 Plus there is a video you can check it out here… That video is on the original lime green machine. Everything about it is pretty much the same as the Pet Pro.

BISSELL^® created BISSELL Pet Foundation^®. Their mission: to help save homeless pets. I’m all about that cause!

The ability to vacuum and wash at the same time is so amazing.

BISSELL^® says: Goodbye pet hair wrap! The Tangle-Free Brush Roll scrubs to remove debris and minimizes annoying pet hair wrap.** ^**Tested with hair length up to 8 inches…

**I can attest to the pet hair under 8″. I haven’t noticed any pet hair clinging to the brush tool. My hair does get wrapped up in it, though the hair seems to catch in the center and on both ends. To be fair, my hair is pushing 24″. Cutting the hair away is super simple and comes away very easily. Definitely not a deal breaker.

There is a separate compartment for the clean water and a separate one for the dirty water. How cool is that?

Touch of a button and clean water shoots out over the brush. I like that it doesn’t spray out, but goes gently over the brush tool, dispersing the water nicely.

I have used this on polished concrete floors, wood floors, vinyl, and ceramic. I’ve also lifted this onto my couch to clean a spot. (Yes, it worked. I wouldn’t tell you to do that. 😉 This machine is awesome!). I’ve put this to the test many times and on many types of flooring and I can say that it cleans any flooring beautifully.

I have used this on rugs and carpet with fantastic results.

This machine has a lot of suction power! I have yet to find a comparable “wash and vac” machine with this much suction. Nothing beats this BISSELL^®CrossWave^®!

Got me up off my knees! Which…Eased back tension. Try washing floors on your hands and knees. It’s not easy. If this is you, you’ll thank me for getting the CrossWave^® 🙂

Gave me back time! From the moment my eyes open, I’m on the go. The CrossWave^® has saved me time! Lots of time!

Two in one; vacuums and washes at the same time. Now who doesn’t love a two in one? Did I mention that already? 😉

Eliminate multiple “tools”. This replaces many.

Easy to use. Maneuverability and size of this machine make it easy to move about my home.

Still easy to take apart and clean. Takes me 5 minutes or less.

Not a big cumbersome machine. Storing it in a small space is very doable.

Makes cleaning fun! Not as fun as eating chocolate cake or hiking with my favorite peeps, though I save time using it so I can have fun eating said cake and going on a fun hike!

I love it so much, I bought two!

It’s a workhorse. I use this a minimum of one time a day, though a usual day is two and sometimes three. I know that sounds excessive, but I really enjoy squeaky clean floors and I have a lot of fur babies.

I can’t tell you how nice it is to put a new post out there and connect and re-connect with you all. I hope this finds you happy and healthy. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to give this a look-at! Until next time…

Peace, Koko❀

 

How To Brush Puppy Teeth

Meet Eloise! Ello for short; rhymes with jello. She just lost her last baby tooth!

Our pets give us so much love. They are there to greet us at the door and snuggle us when we are not feeling well. They are there no matter what. One way I can give them love back is by caring for their health. One way I do that is by taking care of their teeth.

Teeth brushing is super important to your pet’s health. Teaching them to like it can be a challenge for some pets. The way I’ve always done it has worked for me, so I’d thought I’d share it with you. You can check out the video here (or scroll down to the bottom to see the video!) and if you don’t want to watch it…read on!

I’ve never liked using commercial “pet” tooth paste. The ingredients in all the ones I’ve looked into wasn’t anything I wanted my pets to ingest. So I looked into ingredients that I was okay allowing my pets to eat, because let’s be real, our pets don’t know how to spit! Hahahahaha.

I offer my cats coconut oil in a dish. I leave it next to their water and I’ve found over the years that their teeth are really nice and a bonus to that was the amount of hairballs came almost to a stop and what I mean by that is I was cleaning at least one a day! Now it’s more like one a month. When you care for as many felines as I do, it was a lot of daily icky hairball cleaning. And don’t worry…none of my cats eat up the whole bowl of coconut oil! They will take a few licks and walk away.

My dogs get coconut oil after their daily meals. Bonus, their coats look better and itching has stopped. I do not leave a bowl of it out like I do for the kitties. They’d eat the whole amount in a sitting and I don’t need to tell you the mess on the other end if I did!

From reading, I’m sure you can gather that it was coconut oil that I discovered would make an excellent toothpaste; it’s edible and good for them to boot. Their breaths after brushing are really nice too!

You can use coconut oil straight. I scoop out about two tablespoons of coconut oil into a small glass jar and I will dip the toothbrush into it. My pets come running when I do this! It is a “treat” after all. Another way I make pet “teeth-paste” (Never understood why we used the word “tooth paste” when we brush more than one tooth…um well hopefully we do!)…back to another way I make paste, is by mixing diatomaceous earth in with the coconut oil. It helps to solidify it and diatomaceous earth is also good for our pets. PLEASE MAKE SURE the diatomaceous earth you buy is NOT for pools. It must be edible. And to make sure of this, buy it from a health food source. I buy mine online through Swanson Vitamins; you can check out the link here, (I’m not an affiliate with S.V. They don’t do that…I wish they did. I talk about them all the time! Ha!) You can look up the benefits of diatomaceous earth. It helps with fleas too! Yay.

Making it fun is the most important thing, because if they are scared/timid, it makes teeth brushing unpleasant for both you and your furry friend…No one wants to reenact a WWF headlock move! So basically what I do is I put the coconut oil on the toothbrush and let the dog lick it and they might chew on the bristles. I allow them to set the pace and play with the bristles and become familiar with the feeling. If I start brushing teeth on a pet that has never had their teeth brushed and coconut oil isn’t enticing them to give it a try, I will try other things on the brush to get them to “play”. Peanut butter is a good one. I’ve never met a dog that didn’t like peanut butter. Obviously it isn’t something you want to use regularly…just to get them to like having a tooth brush in their mouth is the key. You can switch them to coconut oil later. For the kitties, you can try putting their wet food on it, cream, or juice from tuna to get them started. I’ve found over the years my cats willingness to eat coconut oil keeps their teeth clean without having to brush them. I do check their teeth periodically and have noticed their teeth are beautiful without having them scraped. I’m not a fan of taking my pets to the vet to have their teeth done. I’ve lost a pet being put under anesthesia. Caring for their teeth is not only a cost saving, but a life-saving too.

Many things go wrong in a pet’s health by having bad teeth and gums. Check them weekly if you don’t brush them. Give coconut oil a try. I use organic unfiltered cold pressed. You can find it at Swanson Vitamins, check out the link here. I’ve bought it at Costco and Target too! And if you caught that I give the dogs the coconut oil after their meals, I’ve found it helps any food residue to slip away!

That’s basically it. I hope this helps you to help your pet stay healthy. A healthy mouth is a healthy pet!

The furry gang here At Koko’s Place and I thank YOU for reading!

Have a happy tail-wagging day!

Koko

Bissell Crosswave Review

Bissell came out with a new one! In this post, I will be reviewing the older model. And will compare the two using their site for reference.

Let me begin by saying how much I love my Bissell! It really is a game changer. You can watch the review here on youtube, if you don’t want to watch it, please read on.

What this machine does is it vacuums and washes your floor at the same time! If you are tired of being on your hands and knees scrubbing your floors, if you have kids, pets, a lot of foot traffic, just want clean floors….this is for YOU! It’s lightweight and easy to use and easy to clean. Buy it! I’m seriously in love with this machine. It has saved me so much time and time is something you can’t get back! It has helped my back, as in it got me up off the floor. I can now have clean floors without the stress on my back. Did I mention how much I love this?!

Here it is in all its glory!

Pretty!

Easy push button for different surfaces.

This button releases clean water.

 

Only a few parts. Makes things nice and easy!

All parts easy to put on and take out of machine.

This Crosswave vacuums and washes at the same time, saving me so much time and not to mention energy. (I know i’ve already said it! I’m just so excited about this machine!) It used to take me hours to wash my entire house floors. As the years went by, I’d have to break up my home into sections because it was getting difficult to scrub and clean for so long on my hands and knees. I’d been trying to find a better way. I tried many “tools”, mop, swifter, other types of things attached to a pole and nothing would clean the way I would, using my own hands. There had to be a better way and gosh did I find it! I know this sounds like a bad commercial, but seriously, this machine has given me time back not to mention I’m not exhausted from cleaning. My back thanks me. (I know I’m repeating myself! Haha)

Now if you have the “green” Crosswave; the original or if you have the new “purple” one; the Crosswave Pet Pro, you can’t go wrong. I haven’t used the Pet Pro yet and I no doubt will pick one up so I can show you the difference. In the meantime, from all that I’ve read, the difference that I can find are the bristles on the roller for the Pet Pro might be a smidge longer (could be because mine is worn) and on the Pet Pro there is a “pet hair” strainer. Both new features will fit on the older model and can be purchased through them! Way to go Bissell. Thank you for making something that can enhance the old model without having to purchase a whole new machine.

So this “fur/debris” catcher fits inside the container that catches all the dirty water. It’s like a strainer so you can easily pull out the debris and toss it in the trash and the dirty water you can dump down sink or flush down the toilet. I wouldn’t normally buy this as I don’t find taking out the clumps of hair by hand an issue, however I will, so I can review it for you at a later date.

The (maybe) longer bristles on the “new” roller is something I am very interested in, so I do see myself purchasing that even if I wasn’t reviewing it (I wouldn’t mind a new brush anyway). They also have two other rollers; one for wood floors and one for rugs. I’m going to definitely buy the multi surface roller and will probably succumb to the wood floor and rug roller attachments too, just so I can see how well they work. FYI, the multi surface roller that I have been using works perfectly for all the surfaces that I’ve used it on.

Again, kudos to Bissell for making new attachments that fit the older model. I wish the Pet Pro was the same color as the original Crosswave. I’m not fond of that purple on a machine I use so constantly it is like a piece of furniture in my house! Hahaha. Other than the color, I am a fan! Insert cheering here* woohoo!

You can check out more details on Bissell’s site here!

So, should you buy this? For me it was a no brainer. I’ve been using this crosswave going on two years. I think in the video I said I use it 2-3 times a week. I probably use it 3-4 times on average. Some weeks I’ve used it daily. Basically this machine gets used! A lot! And still running like a champion.

Got me up off my knees! Which…

Eased back tension.

Gave me back time! From the moment my eyes open, I’m on my feet doing something. The Crosswave saved me time! Lots of time! Time you can’t get back!

Two in one; vacuums and washes at the same time.

Eliminate multiple “tools”. This replaces many.

Easy to use. Maneuverability and size of this machine make it easy to move about my home.

Easy to clean. Simple and easy to clean the machine when done using.

Not a big cumbersome machine. Storing it in a small space is very doable.

Makes cleaning fun! Not as fun as eating chocolate cake or hiking with my favorite peeps, though I save time using it so I can have fun eating said cake and go hiking!

If you are teetering on if you should buy this, know that Bissell is donating up to $1,000,000 a year to BISSELL® Pet Foundation™3. That’s pretty awesome to me!

Q and A

How much can you clean before having to dump the tank? On the Bissell site, it says, “700 sq feet”. Just so you all know, dumping out the container isn’t a big deal. Seriously simple and easy and fast.

What kind of surfaces can you use the Crosswave on? On the Bissell site, it says, “Sealed wood, sealed laminate, tile, and linoleum as well as area rugs!” On my video I say I even use it on my carpeted stairs and in the garage. I would also use it on a room that had carpet, but I’m not telling you to do that! 😉

Do you need to vacuum first? I vacuum sometimes before I use the Crosswave, but it isn’t necessary. I have a lot of furry four-legged family members. I vacuum anywhere from 2-4 times a day and I Crosswave a lot during the week.

Thank you sooooo much for popping in here At-Kokos-Place! If you have this machine, I’d love to hear your thoughts and if you have any more questions, please mention them in the comment section and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Have a happy day and happy cleaning!

Hugs and Peace,

Koko

If you know someone that this post would benefit, please share/follow. I so appreciate you and thank you in advance! 

 

 

 

 

Dyson Pure Hot+Cool Link Review

Dyson heats, cools, air purifies your space! All three in one! How cool is that?!

Look what Santa brought me! Dreams do come true. Santa knew! I don’t know how, I never said it out loud, nor did I write it in a letter to the big guy. Though I have a feeling a special elf was involved!

I am super stoked to be talking about my new toy! I’ve walked by these units on display at stores for a couple of years. I must admit they had me at the “cool” setting during one very hot summer. The delightful coolness had me sighing and the near silent machine had me in awe! Then as winter would come they’d turn on the Dyson units that “heat”. The yummy warmth literally had me dreaming of one for myself. Something I didn’t know was Dyson made a unit that did both hot and cool and to make it even better they made it with an air purifier too! What!? Yes you heard me right.

Seven is helping me unbox. What a good kitty!

Since I took this out of the box, I’ve been using it daily. I know it’s too soon to review the longevity of it, but I will do a re-review on that later on during the year.

If you get a chance, take a look at the video about it HERE. Or watch below 🙂

I like its compact size and how quiet it is while on. I love the magnet feature on the remote. When done using it, you can set it on the top of the unit and it stays! No more losing the remote!

The first thing my daughter said was it reminds her of “R2D2”. Of course we had to give ours a name!

This is really easy to use. The controls are simple even for someone who isn’t techie savvy like me! I love that this is basically a 3 in 1; heat, cools, and air purifies. I love that this will replace three units in my home; space heater, fan, and air purifier and I’m looking forward to not having to carry the many units I do have up in the attic with each season when not needed.

The only con I can tell this far is the filter is not washable or reusable. But…from reading the manual, the filter should last a year if using this unit for 12 hours a day! That really is pretty awesome. I’m sure the filter will depend on individual homes: dust, dander, outdoor pollen, etc.

I didn’t go in to minute details on this, mainly because it really is simple to use. Plug in and go (well after I read the directions).

• cools
• heats
• thermostat (this is fantastic, literally you can program this at even increments of one. my space heater starts at 65, 70, 75, 80. So far I’ve enjoyed the temp at 71!)
• air purifies (the air quality is so nice. no burning smell you get with space heaters.)
• airflow control (allows you to control how hard the air pushes out)
• auto mode (this mode adjusts the airflow to the air quality in the room! smart!)
• oscillates
• two modes focused (air blows out directly) and diffused (air blows in a wider direction)
• sleep timer (i love this feature)
• night mode (the display on the machine is dimmed and it runs more quiet! how cool is that?!)
• remote control (easy to use and the magnetic feature to secure it to the top of the unit is smart stuff!)
• link this up to your phone! (what? yes, that’s what I said. I haven’t done this feature yet, but totally looking forward to it)

All in all I’m excited about this unit. Stay tuned for another re-review on this in about 6 months time.

Did I mention I had a few pets? Haha. They are enjoying the heating feature! Can you guess how many are dogs and how many are cats in this picture?

Please stay tuned to why I have green tape on my wall and what I do with it and all the other things I’ve been doing while it seemed like i’ve been MIA! 🙂

Thank you so much for all your likes, comments, and follows. They really do make my day, each and every one!

Be well and just love! Peace, Koko 🙂

No More Kisses!

“Come on Mom, my friends are watching!”

I guess she wanted no part of loving. LOL…It’s incredible to me how much I’ve come to adore this furry little monster.  She’s comical at times, cheeky at best, and loving when only when it’s me and her. If one of her adopted siblings are around, she doesn’t dare snuggle.  She’s off in some hidden place as if to say, “I want mom to myself”.

Today is Monday.  Labor Day here in the United States.  Everyone is supposed to take the day off.  It also signals the end of BBQ season.  In fashion it’s the end of wearing light summer suits for men and the white pants for women.  It’s an interesting custom, one which I don’t practice.  I for one BBQ year round and if I want to wear white in the winter, so be it.

I am off to the market for BBQ things.  I don’t know if I have ever barbecued on Labor Day before.  It just happens the whole family is home and it’s such a beautiful day, grilling just makes sense.  So to you all out there, I hope your day is BBQ beautiful and you are out enjoying it…..Koko❀ ✿ ❁ ✾

Organizing…The Key To A Less Hectic Life…

Organizing…The Key To A Less Hectic Life…

I can’t say enough about organizing.  I’ve said it for years; “An organized life is a happy life”.  (I know there are other things that make for a happy life. 😛 ) But really, how many times do you have to lose your keys before you simply make a hook beside your door?  Or have that one spot you drop your keys onto every time?  Where is that bill?  Under the stack of newspaper only to get accidentally tossed out in the recyclables?  Where is that shirt…only to find it underneath the mountain of clothes you keep tossing, hoping one day you will make it into the Guinness book of world records as the highest pile of laundry!

I find having a place for everything is the key to less stress, as well as, putting things back in its place is equally as important.  I will be posting a series of organizing tips, tricks, and ideas to hopefully help you in your home and life.

I also find being organized helps keep the house cleaner/neater.  Now I am not OCD about organizing.  My books are not alphabetically arranged (though that could be cool…hmmm maybe one day…), I don’t break down if something is out of place, but here at Chateau Koko’s, things do have their place, which makes my life easier as I cheer/care for/and love the people and myriad of animals that come into my world.

Jars are mixture of bought and reused. Have fun writing on them!

Of course I know what is inside the jars…but when others need to cook, I am not asked, “What/where is the flour, sugar, baking soda, etc.! It does help my life a lot when I can label and others can read! 😀

The top picture are glass jars with lids, that I purchased at Target.  They come in different sizes. I love the way they look on top of the counter.

Tip: I write on the glass with a Sharpe.  Washes off easily if I need to switch out and put something else inside.

Reuse good glass jars.  To clean the labels off I use olive oil (any will do).  I will lay the jar down onto a plate and pour a dollop of oil over it.  Wipe it on and leave for a day or two.  Some labels are more stubborn.  Soaking the jar in water can work too, but some labels don’t come off too well with that method.  I pretty much only do the oil method.  And hey no toxic chemicals.  Just olive oil and if it gets all over my hands; well now I just moisturized them!

If jar lids have an odor from whatever product was inside, you can try soaking them in baking soda or vinegar or one day baking soda and the next vinegar.  Regular dish soap can work too.  If lid gets rusty, then I just don’t use it all together.

Here’s to having a stress free life!  Stay tune for more.  Have a happy day everyone! Koko ❀

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