New wheelchair is great, but it's making my house dirty!

[shovan]

My DH has a new power WC & a new lift van. This is great & is helping a lot! However, I've noticed that our house is getting a lot dirtier now that he's using the same WC at work, going shopping & coming home. We used to transfer him from the home scooter, to the work scooter.

Does anyone have any suggestions on keeping the house cleaner. Regular door mats don't seem to help. Any tricks or advice from all you smart Dissers?!!

 

[LindsayDunn228]

That's interesting. I use the same manual wheelchair both in and our of the house and have never had a problem with dirt in my house.

 

[Michigan]

You should be glad you don't live where there is snow! Two wheelchairs going in and out of my house everyday is nothing compared to when it snows and they do.

 

[kaytieeldr]

What about chair mats? The large ones for under office chairs?

 

[dclfun]

All I can say is...vacuum. Where we live I'm always tracking in dirt and grass ( from a mown field I often trek through with my service dog ). I wish I had a home with a majority of hardwood floors, pergo, or tile. That would be the way to go...replace the common areas with those materials. I try not to think about all the grime embedded in our carpet. ---Kathy

 

[shovan]

We have a mix of carpet & wood floors in our home. I've noticed I'm cleaning constantly now! Then the other day it was storming, so then we had tracks all over the house. I was thinking of putting something like an old piece of carpet by the door where DH comes into the house. Something to try & catch more of the dirt/water before it gets into the house. The regular door mats don't seem to be helping at all. I was sure you guys had dealt with this & was hoping someone had come up with some magic solution!

I can definitely see us getting rid of all the carpet down the road. I just wish we hadn't put the wood in a few years back. The newer wood floors just don't seem to be wearing well & they are difficult to get really clean. You can't use a regular mop on them. You have to use a special wood cleaner in the Swiffer wet jet or a spray bottle with a special cloth mop. It just doesn't get as clean as I'd like & it's a pain to keep clean.

I can't imagine dealing with snow! But here in New Orleans, water is definitely more of a problem!! I'm glad he's not going through grass a lot either! His office parking lot is gravel & that dirt/small rocks are being brought into the house.

 

[BillSears]

Dirt???? Never noticed it.

Hey it's just part of life. A little dirt here and there just doesn't bother me.

 

[shovan]

Bill, I'm not a clean freak or anything! I did think the that all the posts about wanting people to take thier shoes off before coming into the house, was pretty strange!

 

[shovan]

All I can say is...vacuum. Where we live I'm always tracking in dirt and grass ( from a mown field I often trek through with my service dog ). I wish I had a home with a majority of hardwood floors, pergo, or tile. That would be the way to go...replace the common areas with those materials. I try not to think about all the grime embedded in our carpet. ---Kathy

Kathy, I tried to pm you, but your box is full. I was wondering if you might have any photos of the driving set-up of your van? Thanks, Sheryl

 

[dclfun]

Sorry about that! I'll try to figure out how to clean out my inbox. I don't have any photos but will be glad to take them and send them to you. I've got the paperwork completed for another adapted van through VR as mine is now 5 years old. I actually bought it a year before they put in the adaptations and it seemed like they took forever. VR paid for a rental van while I was waiting though so I could still get to/from work. I've got the same dirt/grass inside my van as we have indoors....sigh. I try not to look down. ---Kathy

 

[ToriLammy]

All I can say is...vacuum. Where we live I'm always tracking in dirt and grass ( from a mown field I often trek through with my service dog ). I wish I had a home with a majority of hardwood floors, pergo, or tile. That would be the way to go...replace the common areas with those materials. I try not to think about all the grime embedded in our carpet. ---Kathy

Yep, three years ago we lived in a house with dark brown carpeting. Never really noticed the dirt tracked in by my daughter's wheelchair. Moved to a house with light carpeting, OMG you can see the track marks of where she drives, sits in her chair, etc. We're looking at buying a house in the next 6 months - there will be no carpeting at all!

 

[shovan]

Sorry about that! I'll try to figure out how to clean out my inbox. I don't have any photos but will be glad to take them and send them to you. I've got the paperwork completed for another adapted van through VR as mine is now 5 years old. I actually bought it a year before they put in the adaptations and it seemed like they took forever. VR paid for a rental van while I was waiting though so I could still get to/from work. I've got the same dirt/grass inside my van as we have indoors....sigh. I try not to look down. ---Kathy

Thanks Kathy! That's great news that your getting a new van! How soon do you think it will happen! Yes, the van carpet is really getting bad, really quickly! The van dealer said he could change out the carpet, but with that ugly rubber black flooring. My DH is looking into getting a rubber mat to put over the carpet. That way if we have someone with us, or are going somewhere nice, I could take it out.

 

[shovan]

Yep, three years ago we lived in a house with dark brown carpeting. Never really noticed the dirt tracked in by my daughter's wheelchair. Moved to a house with light carpeting, OMG you can see the track marks of where she drives, sits in her chair, etc. We're looking at buying a house in the next 6 months - there will be no carpeting at all!

I hope you can get something that cleans itself! Maybe those little roomba vacuums would help, but I doubt it. I'd probably need 3 or 4 running all over the house!!

ps Love your Jeff pics!

 

[Andrew Bichard]

Yep, three years ago we lived in a house with dark brown carpeting. Never really noticed the dirt tracked in by my daughter's wheelchair. Moved to a house with light carpeting, OMG you can see the track marks of where she drives, sits in her chair, etc. We're looking at buying a house in the next 6 months - there will be no carpeting at all!

Carpet can be better than no carpet.

I enter my house through my kitchen, which has a light coloured Amtico (vinyl) floor. If it's raining outside, or the floor is wet because it has just been cleaned but hasn't dried off yet, I make a terrible mess. Tyre tracks everywhere.

My living room has a dark blue 'hotel grade' carpet. It soaks up the water from my tyres and hardlyy shows the dirt. When I come in, I tend to pass quickly through the kitchen to make the minimum ammount of tracks, then 'figure of eight' on living room carpet before returning to kitchen.

In passing has anyone had problems with the carpet cleaners that Disney uses in their rooms. They sometimes use some powerful cleaning agent that softens my black rubber tyres so that I leave marks everywhere, especially where I turn on the spot.

Andrew

 

[shovan]

Andrew, we have not noticed any problems with the tires while in WDW. Although if it only softened the tires while we were there, I don't think we'd notice it.

On the mess in the house, have you tried a rug or piece of carpet outside the door. That's what I think I'm going to try. I'll put up a post if it helps with the mess.

 

[thop529]

Sorry, had to laugh at your post. It brought back some memories.

After I had had my power chair for 1 month I went to a high school football game. I was so excited because I hadn't been to one in years, now with my chair I was more mobile and could go. I don't live far from the high school field, so I just went on my chair rather than transfering into my van.

The day before it had rained, and I mean really rained. I went through several muddy places really not thinking about it. By the time I returned home the mud was just about dry. For the next 4 days we were cleaning up dried dirt from the carpet (our carpet is burgandy in color). What a mess!

 

[SueM in MN]

funny mud story, thop529.

We have a somewhat similar one. We had taken DD to a pumpkin patch last year to pcik out a pumpkin. We had not noticed how much rain we had until after she had driven thru an aweful lot of mud. When we got home, we cleaned her wheels over and over, bit we were still finding mud on the tires a few days later.

In passing has anyone had problems with the carpet cleaners that Disney uses in their rooms. They sometimes use some powerful cleaning agent that softens my black rubber tyres so that I leave marks everywhere, especially where I turn on the spot.

We have not noticed anything, but my DD's power and manual wheelchair both have grey tires that I think are made of vinyl or nylon. If yours are made of rubber, that might be a reason why you had a problem.

We have white tile in our laundry room (where you come in from the garage), light tan carpet in much of our house and wood floors in the kitchen and entry hall. We don't have a lot of problem with DD tracking stuff on our carpets, but do have some. We have carpet runners in our laundry room where DD comes in. The runners are similar to the mats that stores have to 'catch' dirt and snow at their entry doors. When it is wet or snowy (hate snow!), we leave DD's wheelchair park on the runner until the snow melts off or the rain dries. We also wash her wheels off from time to time.

 

[shovan]

Funny story! thop529

I know DH & I are excited to be able to go out more often & go places he hasn't been able to do for a while. I think I'll be a to remember to try & stay out of muddy fields, now!

Sue, those carpet runners was exactly the tip I was looking for! You know always have the answers!! Can you give me more details on those runners. Exactly what do they look like, where did you find them. Thanks!!

 

[SueM in MN]

I could not find what I was looking for; I had to think of what to call them and searching for 'carpet' only brought rugs as results.

If you go www.homedepot.com and search for 'door mat', you can find all sorts. We have several big ones in our laundry room to cover the 'path' that the wheelchair takes thru that room from outside - I think they are 3 feet by 4 feet. We have the kind that have a low nap, like a rug. There are other kinds that are rubber with little bumps of rubber; we didn't like that kind.

We have a ramp in our garage to go from ground level to about 16 inches up to get into the house (we were not supposed to need a ramp, but the builder didn't do it right). Anyway, we found the same sort of door mat material sold by the foot on big rolls at Home Depot. We bought enough to cover our whole ramp. That piece is about 3 feet wide and about 16 feet long. Even if you don't have a ramp, you could do the same thing to make a 'path' for your husband to get into the house.
The doormat material is just rough enough that it takes much of the soil off the wheels before the wheelchair gets into the house. We also have a small hand broom that we use to knock the snow off before she comes in the house in the winter.

I could not find the mats on Lowe's website, but if you have a Lowe's or other home store near you, they probably have it if you can describe it.