Housekeeping Tips for Living With(out) Pet Hair

There are dogs and cats that don’t shed. There are even dogs and cats that don’t have fur at all! But chances are, if you have dogs and/or cats, like most of the rest of us pet lovers—you are constantly struggling to control, contain, or get rid of the fur they are spreading around your house.

Here's a frightening fact - your beloved pet's skin contains around 15,000 hair strands per square inch. No wonder keeping your home clean feels like an endless challenge.

The reality of pet ownership comes with year-round shedding cycles. While most dogs shed heavily once or twice a year, they're actually losing and replacing hair every single day. But don't let this discourage you from enjoying life with your furry family member!

At HCCA, we understand the unique challenges pet owners face in maintaining a clean, welcoming home. We have mastered the craft of pet hair removal through years of experience, both at work and at home (we have three dogs), and we’ll be thrilled to send a team of Cleaning Specialists to your home on a regular basis and clean it from top to bottom, then take all the pet hair away with us. But that’s not the purpose of this blog. This article focuses on housekeeping tips help you live without pet hair every day, day-in and day-out, whether it is between professional cleaning appointments or all on your own.

We'll show you exactly how to tackle this hairy situation--from selecting the perfect cleaning tools to creating a maintenance routine that works to keep pet fur manageable. It’s pretty hard work, but you can transform your home from a fur-covered challenge into a clean, comfortable space for both you and your four-legged friend(s)!

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure!

Or a good offense is the best defense . . . regardless of the saying you choose, preventing or controlling pet shedding is the first step in attacking hairy build-up in your home. Bathing and brushing your dog on a regular basis—the frequency depends on the breed and amount of shedding that occurs with the breed—is a key step in minimizing the buildup.

Thankfully, there are products specifically designed to help ranging from shampoos designed to prevent shedding, such Hartz True Cost, to the FURminator Short Hair Dog Deshedding Tool, the Dipoo Self Cleaning Shedding Brush, or the Upgrade Efficient Pet Hair Remover Gloves. Online retailers like chewy.com or amazon.com sell these plus a host of other tools to make the task easier.

But . . . the key is consistency of use! Ten to fifteen minutes a week dedicated to using shedding tools on your pet’s coat will go a long way to controlling the amount of hair that ends up in every nook and cranny of your home!

Essential Tools for Housekeeping That Make Pet Hair Disappear!

General Clean Up: Vacuum Cleaners

Not surprisingly, the first tool you will need is a good home vacuum cleaner. And depending on your preferences, the second tool you may need is also a good vacuum cleaner. Vacuums are your most powerful ally in the struggle with pet hair. If you choose to go with one vacuum, you’ll want an upright vacuum that can use a HEPA filter that captures 99.97% of dust and pet dander. It must also be adjustable to handle vacuuming both carpet and hard surface floors, including hardwood. The best vacuums for handling pet hair come equipped with:

• Powerful suction that pulls hair from deep in carpets

• A built-in hose that can reach pretty much anywhere

• A tangle-free brush attachment with a roller that spins to capture pet hair

• An assortment of other tools for upholstery, floors, and hard surfaces

Cleaning companies tend to go the two-vacuum route, carrying a lightweight upright with lots of suction, but no hoses, bells, or whistles to vacuum carpet, thick rugs, and many hard surfaces. For hardwood, other hard surface floors, and thin or fragile rugs they carry a good portable vacuum with a long hose and lots of floor and specialty attachments to vacuum under and around things where an upright vacuum cannot reach…but pet hair can (and always does.)

Professional Tip: Mix fabric softener and water in a spray bottle for an instant carpet solution. Just spray lightly, wait five minutes, then vacuum - watch that stubborn hair rise right to the surface!

Microfiber Cloths, Kitchen Sponges & Rubber Gloves

You'll love how microfiber cloths naturally attract pet hair with their electrostatic charge especially when misted lightly with water. The sweep of a clean, dry kitchen sponge across upholstery pulls hair right off. Want something even better? Slip on dampened rubber gloves - they create perfect tension with furniture surfaces, gathering hair into easy-to-remove clumps.

Lint Rollers

Lint Rollers such as ScotchBrite’s Pet Extra Sticky Lint Roller can simplify the task of removing pet hair that clings to surfaces—whether furniture, bedding or clothing.. More specialized tools like the Chom Chom Roller Pet Hair Remover & Reusable Lint Roller can be used on a number of surfaces. And it’s easy to make your own by wrapping packing tape (or something similar) around your hand with the sticky side out—just sweep over the surface, et voila! Hair-free surfaces in a jiffy. Keeping lint roller’s handy throughout the house makes it easy to handle pet hair a little at a time and prevent buildup.

Heavy Duty Pet Hair Removal

Pet hair left on fabric or carpet surfaces become increasingly more difficult to remove the more the surface is used and the longer it’s left untreated. Pet hair embeds in the fabric or fibers making quick solutions like lint rollers less effective. To combat those tough situations, special tools may be needed.

1. A carpet rake such as the Uproot Cleaner Xtra Pet Hair Removal Tool

2. Peflex Pet Hair Removal Tool for clothes, carpet, car detailing & furniture

3. Personal favorite: Fur-Zoff Dog & Cat Hair Remover which looks and feels a bit like a lava rock!

Professional Tip: The secret to a fur-free home isn't just having the right tools - it's knowing when to use each one. Let your vacuum handle the heavy lifting, use brushes to prevent hair spread, and keep cleaning cloths ready for quick touch-ups. Give these tools a try, and you'll see why our clients love this winning combination!

Laundry Solutions

Have you ever sat in a chair and ended up with fur pants? Pet hair imbeds in some clothing fabrics just like it does in carpet, making it very hard to remove! Thankfully, there are laundry products designed to help remove pet hair that is attached to or embedded in fabrics. Dryer balls, such as the Smart Sheep Xl Wool Dryer Balls (Amazon) not only adhere to and pull the pet hair from clothes, they also speed up drying time and help with wrinkling. Another option is Bounce Pet Hair & Lint Guard Mega Dryer Sheets that come in a variety of scents as well as unscented. We use both options in our laundry and have found they are key components of our chihuahua/basset hound/Dobermutt pet hair deterrent strategy!

The Secret to Success: Consistent Action

Daily Attention is Key—In Small Doses

Attack those problem areas as soon as you spot them. This prevents hair from becoming your furniture's permanent resident.

Weekly Cleaning Will Make Your Home Much More Livable

Change bed linens and towels to keep hair from building up. And you want to handle this FIRST because you don’t want hair and lint from these items to shake out on your newly cleaned furniture or floors!

Vacuum Your Home! Giving your home a good vacuuming each week between more thorough bi-weekly or monthly cleanings will make a huge difference!. And when we say vacuum your home, we mean vacuum EVERYTHING! Even the furniture! Dusting tends to stir up dust allowing it to float in the air and later re-deposit on your freshly dusted surfaces. Instead, use the round brush attachment that comes with many vacuums to “dust” hard or slick surfaced furniture like leather sofas/chairs, tabletops, hearths, baseboards, blinds/shutters, knick-knacks, etc. It’s fast, and even better, you don’t stir up floating dog hair—it’s been sucked into your vacuum cleaner to be removed permanently from your home. No floaties!

Use Specialty Tools. Use your vacuum's upholstery brush attachment to pull out loose hair and allergy-triggering dander from fabric covered furniture, pillows, drapes, etc. If that doesn’t completely do the trick use a tool like the Fur-Zoff hair remover mentioned previously mentioned to help finish pulling the hair from the fabric.

For wall-to-wall carpet and large, shaggy area rugs, vacuuming in different directions over the same spot loosens stubborn hair. If further help is needed, the Fur-Zoff tool works miracles on less shaggy rugs and carpets. Use the attachment designed for hard-surface floors—those usually have a felt or soft bristle brush—to remove pet hair from hardwood or tiled floors.

Professional Tip: Anti-static spray such as Static Guard or Magic Static Remover helps keeps new hair from sticking to household surfaces including furniture, fabric and floors!

Clean Fido's Stuff! Clean pet toys and kennels with pet-safe solutions and hand-wash or mop areas of high-pet traffic—especially coming in from outdoors.

On the Other Hand, Life's Too Short to Spend It Fighting Pet Hair!

At HCCA, we believe you shouldn't spend precious family time constantly battling pet hair. With the right tools and a consistent plan, you can enjoy a clean home and your furry family members too with or without professional help. But wouldn’t you really rather be doing something other than fighting pet hair? We’re positive that the answer to that question is an emphatic “yes!”, so give us a call and let our expert house cleaners handle the dirty work! We'll show you why HCCA was voted DFW's Favorite House Cleaning Service among local house cleaners. Your furry friends will thank you!