Unless you have a hairless cat for a pet, chances are that your furry little friends are leaving trails of pet hair around your home! Yes, when you have a pet cat or dog (or both), shedding of fur is inevitable. At this time, we feel the need to tell you that shaving your pets is not the answer, nor is leaving them outside for most of the day!
So, when you find pet hair pretty much everywhere, the only thing left to do is clean it up! Now, the questions are:
What’s the most effective way to remove fur in the house?
How can I keep pet hair in my home to a minimum?
Don’t sweat it; we’ve got your answers right here! Read on for our top tips on cleaning pet hair at home and how to tackle it from the source (figuratively, not literally!)
Carpets
The thing about pet hair and carpets is that they cling to each other! What’s worse, fur gets easily embedded in the fibres, making it rather hard to remove. This is especially true when there is heavy foot traffic on a carpet that has not been cleaned recently. So, it’s important to clean your carpets regularly to avoid the struggle of cleaning an extremely furry one!
Here’s the most effective way to remove pet hair from carpets:
- Loosen entangled fur by ruffling up the fibres (gently)! Do this with either a medium-bristled carpet brush or a pumice stone.
- Gather as many clumps of fur using either of these tools and refrain from pushing the carpet fibres back down.
- Vacuum up the clumps of fur before proceeding to vacuum the rest of your carpet.
- Use the right carpet attachment for this and different angles when vacuuming for best results.
Flooring
Since your pets spend much of their time playing, running and sleeping on the floor, this is where shed fur generally accumulates. Obviously, vacuuming is the best and most convenient option to clean pet hair from your floors; however, if you look closely, you’ll find that vacuuming alone does not get the job done thoroughly. Using the right attachment heads for corners and narrow spaces will help be as thorough as possible, but there will always be the ones that got away! So, to rid your floor of fur entirely, use a dry electrostatic mop over your floors after vacuuming, followed by a wet mop using your regular floor cleaner. Electrostatic mops are very effective in cleaning fur and dust from tiled and hardwood floors.
Furniture
Whether your pets climb up onto your furniture or not, their fur is sure to make it there! Particularly on low shelving and other floor-level furniture pieces, a large amount of fur can accumulate if not wiped regularly. Now, cleaning fur from your furniture is slightly different that wiping up dust; pet hair is more easily unsettled by a regular dust cloth and hence, should be cleaned differently. We suggest wiping furniture with used (or unused) dryer sheets for satisfactory results. Fur clings to these sheets far better than other types of dust cloths, making it rather quick and easy to rid your furniture of pet hair!
Upholstery
Even with a ‘no pets on the couch’ policy firmly in place, you’re going to find pet hair on it! Not just your couch, but any upholstery that you have in your home. To get rid of it in the most thorough manner, you’ll need a vacuum cleaner + upholstery attachment, along with a pair of rubber gloves. Begin by vacuuming to remove as much pet hair from obvious areas and narrow, intricate spaces. Next, put on a pair of rubber gloves and glide your hands over the upholstery; you’ll be amazed as how easily fur gets picked up and clings to the rubber. You can rinse off the gloves when needed and continue the process using damp gloves (they are just as effective, if not more).
Pet Grooming
The amount of pet hair around your home is owed to the lack of grooming your pets to receive. If you don’t brush them daily, all that loose fur, along with the hairs that are going to fall soon enough, will be shed in your house. Therefore, the best way to keep pet hair in your home to a minimum is by grooming your pets outside every single day and, of course, cleaning regularly using the tips above! If your pet is shedding an incessant amount of fur on a daily basis, consult a vet.
We understand that shedding of pet hair in your home is a recurring issue and, for many homeowners, lack of time to clean leads to the accumulation of fur in the home. So for the busy pet parent, we suggest hiring a professional cleaning service to maintain a fur-free home.
