If you have a dog, then you know how hard it is to keep their hair from sticking to pretty much every surface in your home. No matter how many times a day you sweep or vacuum, dog hair always seems to magically reproduce itself five minutes later. As dog lovers ourselves, at Anasazi Animal Clinic we’ve honed our dog hair cleaning skills over the years. We’d like to share our top tips on how to clean dog hair from carpet, wood flooring, furniture, and everything in between.
How to Remove Dog Hair From Around Your Home
1: Carpeting and Rugs
Wondering how to effectively clean dog hair from the carpet around your house? There are two different methods we swear by:
- The first is manually removing dog hair with a carpet rake. It works in much the same way that a lawn rake works for cleaning up leaves and other debris. The rake has thin metal or plastic bristles that reach into the carpet’s fiber to remove ground-in pet hair for a very deep clean.
- For a quicker fix, we suggest investing in a quality pet hair vacuum. These types of vacuums feature the power necessary to such up all pet hair out of carpeting. And their specially-designed filters and collection containers can handle large tangles of dog hair.
2: Wood Floors
In our experience, the best way to clean dog hair from wood floors is a microfiber dust mop. The microfiber heads on these mops are specially designed to attract and hold on to pet hair, dust, dirt, and other potential allergens. The microfibers hold on to hair and dirt and do not let it go until you throw the mop head into the washing machine. Plus, you can use most microfiber dust mops either wet or dry, which gives them a lot of versatility.
3: Upholstered Furniture
People ask us all the time about how to clean dog hair from their couch. Our best trick: a rubber glove! Place a clean rubber dishwashing glove on your hand, moisten it slightly with water, and then rub your gloved hand over the surface of your sofa. The rubber glove attracts dog hair to itself like magic, making it super easy to remove. Just make sure to rinse the glove as you go along, to ensure you’re not reapplying any hair back onto the furniture.
4: Blankets and Clothing
Dog hair can be tricky to remove from textiles such as clothing and blankets. While lint rollers can help in a pinch, they do not always remove the hairs that have woven themselves into the fabric.
To make sure that dog hair is totally gone from clothing and blankets, here’s what we suggest:
- First, give any clothing or blankets with dog hair on them a good shake to remove loose hairs.
- Next, place the clothing and blankets in the dryer first for about 10 minutes. The warm air helps soften the fabric and loosen hairs trapped in its fibers.
- Then, wash your clothing or blankets as you would normally.
- Finally, dry your freshly-washed clothes in the dryer. Make sure to clean out the lint trap both before and after the drying cycle.
5: Washing Machine
As we just mentioned, the washing machine is a great tool for removing dog hair from fabrics around your home. But did you ever notice that the dog hair it removes can get stuck inside the washing machine? This can keep the washer from working properly and even result in dog hair getting back on your clean clothes!
If you’re constantly cleaning clothing, blankets, and other textiles with dog hair on them, make sure to regularly clean your washing machine of the hair it removes. This is easily done by simply running a cleaning cycle when the washing machine is empty. Once it’s finished, use a microfiber cloth to wipe down the inner drum of the washing machine and remove any leftover pet hair or debris.
6: Car
While your car is not technically in your house, you might spend enough time in it to make it feel like an extension of your home. And if you constantly take Rover on car rides, then knowing how to clean dog hair from the car is probably something you would like to know.
Our rubber glove trick works on car upholstery, as do lint rollers, which are easy to stash in a glove box for quick clean-ups. But do you want to know another great trick? Dryer sheets! Just run an unused dryer sheet over your car seats and watch it magically pick up all the dog hair. Keep a box of dryer sheets in the car for whenever you need quick cleaning.
Professional Dog Care in Gilbert, Arizona
We hope you find our pointers on how to clean dog hair from carpet, wood floors, furniture, and even the washing machine helpful. No matter what type of dog breed you have, whether they have short hair or long hair, it always seems to get everywhere. Following these easy tips should help cut down on your housework, leaving you much more time to play with your pet.
We’d love to hear if these tips worked! If it’s been a while since your dog has been in for an exam, call Anasazi Animal Clinic at 480-497-0505 to schedule an appointment today.
Photo by Ayla Verschueren on Unsplash