Pet friendly home cleaning – As a pet owner myself I understand the work involved in keeping your home clean and sanitized. If you have pets you know what it is like to live with floating hair balls, wonderfully scented sofas and the ever so popular urine on the carpets especially at the puppy stage. Being animal lovers we get to the point where we don’t even notice that our house smells like a kennel.
No more excuses for family and friends when they visit. Cleaning up after your pets can be easy and makes life easier for everyone to be in a healthy environment. These steps will help you achieve “fresh” new home for the entire family including the hairy family members.
The key is that you must remove the source before the smell will completely disappear.
1.Bathing your pets: Recommended at least once a month but I personally clean every 2 weeks or as required. Be carefully not to over wash as this is not good for the animal..
- If you have dogs, give them a bath. If they are dirty they will carry it around all over your home. It will also remove the excess hair before it reaches your furniture. For cats, brush to remove excess hair; even for short hair breeds. I recommend the FURminator, it is a wonder brush. It is pricey, but will last a lifetime and is available at major pet stores.
2. Furniture: Recommended at least once a week. But try at least every 2nd/3rd day
- Next, start with removing dog/cat hair from your sofa and chairs. The best way is by using a standard vacuum cleaner with the side attachment; simply guide it along the furniture until all the hair is gone. A common lint roller will also do the trick but time consuming
3. Vacuum: Recommended at least once a week but try and clean every 3rd day especially during winter in the soggy mud months.
- Vacuum: Start with an empty vacuum bag or cup. Vacuum longer than you usually would to get out as much dirt and hair as possible.
- Laminated or tile flooring: Vacuum well then apply pet friendly disinfectant and mop – Never use bleach as this could bur the animals paws and cause irritation. Nothing kills bacteria like bleach but think about your animal walking on it.
4. Filters – Heat Pumps. Recommended once per month especially in winter
- Clean out your heat pump/air conditioning units at least every month especially with pets. It is a great habit to pick up as it does not take long for filters to become dirty.
5. Disinfect: Recommended daily.
- Removing surface bacteria will remove lingering odors. A high quality sanitizer can kill more than 99% of germs, even cold and flu viruses. Many of them can be used on any surface in your home.
6. Air fresheners: Recommended daily
- Standard air fresheners only mask the scent of the home and eventually your home will smell like a pet covered in roses and flowers. It is recommended to use a spray that will remove the odours instead of covering them up. Countdown, Pak’N’Save or any good store have dedicated pet odour sprays. A good air sanitizer will kill many of the airborne odor-causing bacteria and leaves your home spelling fresh and clean. Glen 20 is also a very good product for pets and other issues including smelly shoes.
7. Urine: Recommended as needed.
- I highly recommend Bissell Pet Stain/Odour Solution – pet stain & oduor remover for removal of all urine odours. This is a miracle product and is a must for anyone who has a pet. It is also great for rabbit, guinea pig cages.
- Do not clean with Ammonia based products as this could make the scent marking worse meaning dogs will urinate more not less.
8. Pet Bedding: Recommended at least two times a month or as required.
- If washable, wash in hot water then spray for a fresh, clean scent.
The above are tried and tested ways to keep your home fresh and clean. Having pets 100% increase the cleaning work load but well worth the extra effort. It all comes down to creating habits and then it is a breeze to keep the home clean and odour free.
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