Pets are some of the best members of our families, even though they shed like crazy! Torontonians certainly love their animals. Any time you look outside, you can see devoted dog parents taking their little ones for a stroll, and dog parks are teeming in the summer. As for cats? Cat people and their feline charges are rather inseparable.
It’s all love until cleanup time. That’s when you start discovering hair in the carpet, in the couch, in your clothing and in your bed! How does one little critter produce all that fluff? And how do you even begin cleaning it up? It can feel like the work of a small cleaning army to get your house or condo back to normal. And even if you do clean all the hair up, won’t it just reappear within a day?
Part of the responsibility of pet ownership is cleaning up after them constantly. Certain breeds of animals involve more vacuuming and laundry. We’re talking about the top tier fluffers, the hairiest woofers, the shaggiest doggos…you get the picture.
You need to clean up all that hair if you want to live in your own home instead of a fortress of fur. Animal hair piling up can aggravate allergies and asthma, damage your furniture and make it hard for people to come visit. Follow our handy cleaning guide to get started on de-fluffing your home.
1) Floors
If you have hard floors, try an electrostatic broom to catch all the pet hair, such as a swiffer. Vacuuming pet hair off hardwood surfaces simply kicks everything up into the air, making it a self-defeating task. There will always be more hair to clean, and you’ll be wondering what weird cleaning purgatory you’ve landed yourself in. Since swiffers use one-time use cloths, you can go with the environmentally friendly option and use a microfiber cloth if you like. It has the same electrostatic charge that attracts pet hair to it.
If you have upholstered floors, that’s a different story. A good trick is to begin with sprinkling baking soda over your floors. This has the double effect of loosening up pet hair while neutralizing carpet odours. Give your carpets a good vacuum, paying special attention to the edges of the room (dirt, dander and hair tend to collect the most there).
An alternative to heavy-duty floor cleaning days is to invest in a robot vacuum, such as a roomba. It never stops vacuuming, so pet hair never becomes a problem. Plus, it’s worth the cost just to see the look on your pet’s face when it meets its new housemate.
2) Furniture
For wood or otherwise hard surfaced furniture, take the same tack as you did with hardwood floors. A damp microfiber cloth does a great job collecting pet hair.
For upholstered sofas and chairs, you can use the nozzle extension of your vacuum. This works, but there are other furniture tricks that can yield better results in a shorter time. Wet a sponge, rubber glove or squeegee and pass it all over your furniture item. The pet hair should form an impressive ball. Just make sure to let your chair or sofa fully dry before your pet resumes “their spot”.
If your pet has a particular place they love to cuddle up, make it even cozier for them by placing a soft microfiber blanket on top. They’ll love the extra padding to sleep on, and you’ll save your sofa from being a fur-collection zone. Throwing a blanket in the wash is easy–cleaning out hair from the smallest crevices of your sofa is not.
3) Keep Up On HVAC
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning is important to check on regularly, but even more so if you have a pet. Pet hair, dandruff and dirt circulate through the air and can clog up vents, adding to wear and tear and can even become a fire hazard if left too long. Neglecting your vents is also a prime cause of airborne allergens. If anyone in your home has skin or immune system sensitivities, then cleaning out your air vents will help them out substantially.
4) Take Them To The Spa
Ok, your pets may not feel like they’re at the spa when you take them to the groomer, but we can project, right?
One of the best ways to cut down on the abundance of pet hair in your home is to brush them regularly and take them to the groomer every so often. You’ll be removing their hair yourself in a controlled, contained way, instead of letting them shed all over your couches. Your pets will also be much more comfortable without that itchy, sheddy hair!
Having pets is a joy and a half, but their hair is like the roommate no one invited. It can be a pain to clean up all the hair that finds its way into every nook and cranny of the home, but not if you’re diligent about keeping up with the task. That way, pet hair never becomes a monumental chore, and you get into the habit of keeping pet hair at a manageable level. Still, it can feel like a never-ending battle sometimes: you against your pet hair, microfiber cloth in hand and a few loads of laundry. Don’t despair, just bust that pet hair!
Nothing does the job like a professional. Instead of drowning in pet hair, call a certified cleaning wizard to help bring your home back to its former glory. Maid4Condos is a residential condo-cleaning service located in the Greater Toronto Area that offers master-class trained, secured and bonded cleaning experts. Call us at 647-822-0601 or contact us here.
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