By Emily – Bailey’s friend, colleague and fellow home-lover
Fluffy pets – cute but completely impractical! Image pinned by Loriana.
We all know that a pet can help to make a house a home, but it’s also true that that pet in turn can leave that home looking rather, well, hairy. It can be frustrating when your fluffy friend leaves fur all over your upholstery – but luckily there are several simple solutions and quite a few tools on the market that are designed to make cleaning up after Fido so much easier.
First, let it be said that prevention is better than cure. So if there’s a particular place that you’d rather not share with your four-legged friend let it be known. Dogs can be trained but anyone who’s ever owned a cat will know that the same is not true of our feline counterparts. However, cats hate the smell of citrus so spraying your favourite chair or the bottom of your bed with citrus-flavoured Febreze will ensure that Felix finds somewhere else to shed his fluffy behind.
However, as with all cleaning products that you use alongside your cat you’ll need to make sure that these products don’t contain ammonia – If they do, regularly spraying the same spot with them could have disastrous effects! Cat’s urine also contains ammonia and therefore your cat will think that it’s fine to use this part of the house as his personal toilet.
If you don’t mind your pampered pet curling up on the sofa with you, and let’s face it, is there a better way to watch a film? Then these tips will make sure that your house stays spic and span in the meantime.
The Damp Hand
Image pinned by Tim Leefeldt
It may be simple but lightly damping your hands has to be one of the most effective ways of tackling pet hair. With your damp hand, wipe the area in a downwards motion. As the hair gets heavier as it gets wet and so is no longer static and liable to fly onto your clothes.
The Rubber Gloves
Pinned by Andrea Miller from Real Simple
Exactly what the picture above shows – pop on a pair and pick up the hair! Best keep a pair specifically for this purpose – you don’t want furry dishes!
The Balloon
Pinned by Pat Baker from Google
If you have children then the balloon method is a great way to get them helping around the house. Don’t worry they’ll love it! Simply blow up a balloon and rub it against the surface that has pet hair stuck on it. The static on the balloon attracts the pet hair and you simply need to remove it from the balloon, before reusing the balloon again.
CarPet
Image: Amazon
Sometimes pet hair is not just confined to the house. If you have a dog then you’re probably only too aware of how hairy your car gets after just a couple of rides. I don’t have a car or a dog, but this device has miniature teeth that gather up hair and is incredibly easy to use. I use it on the stairs after hovering as it gets into all those annoying nooks that the hoover just can’t reach.
Tennis Ball
Pinned by Nancy Ward from Sunday In Bed
If you have a playful pooch, then it’s likely that you’ll have a few tennis balls lying around the house. For this technique though, you’ll need one that hasn’t been chewed up. This is because the felt texture just grabs at fur on upholstery and can pick up clumps at a time.
The AmazeBrush
Image: AmazeBrush.com
I bought this from the Ideal Home Show and it is by far the best tool that I’ve used for cleaning up cat hair from my sofa. The brush has microfibre pads that you simply rub along the furniture and it gathers up hair like nothing else! The pads are also incredible about getting boggles out of clothing and several of my jumpers look brand new after buying this.
Finally, once you’ve collected all that pet hair what do you do with it? Well we’re all for recycling at The How-To Home, so you might find these books useful:
Pinned by Kelly Morrell from Incredible Things
Image: Amazon
Do you have pets at home? Are they particularly fluffy? Send us a picture and we’ll feature our favourites! Email jen@howtohome.co.uk
