Keeping a pet friendly home

You may well have been fortunate enough to welcome a new pet into your home this Christmas. You’ve probably also heard that people who have pets generally live longer, have lower blood pressure, are less stressed. However, MOLLY MAID, the domestic house cleaners, know that pet owners generally have more housecleaning chores, too. And cleanliness is critical, not just because of unpleasant pet odours, but also for good health. The good news is that there are lots of ways to keep a pet’s home as clean as can be!

The task of keeping your house clean when you have pets can be divided into daily maintenance to keep hair and dust levels down and occasional clean-ups after an accident. Since most dogs and cats shed their hair, proper grooming is the first and most effective step in keeping down dust and hair in the house.

Here are some effective ways by MOLLY MAID, the cleaning experts, to keep a pet-friendly home clean.

• Choose a designated sleeping area for your pets – a bed they can call their own. Hair will be more contained to just one area.
• Place carpet underlay beneath the pet’s dishes to keep them from sliding around and spilling.
• Try to shake out your pet’s bedding on a daily basis, clean around its bed twice a week, and launder its bed once a week.
• To keep cats from using your furniture as a scratching post, spray the arms and legs of the sofa with perfume – they don’t like this.
• Keeping a scratching post for cats and try to teach cats to use it.
• If pets lie on furniture, use washable covers if possible to protect against animal hair and soiling.
• Microfibre mops are effective at picking up hair and dust balls from the floor.
• To pick up pet hair from furniture, try Scotch or masking tape rolled backwards around your fingers. A pair of rubber gloves, a chamois, or a damp cloth will also do the trick.
• Special vacuum cleaners have features that remove animal hair. Also since hair seems to gather around the edges of furniture, use an edging tool or the straight hose to get those spots first, then vacuum the rest of the furniture.
• Hair rakes, available from the pet shop, will remove much of the hair before vacuuming to keep things gentle on carpets.
• Gauze or cheesecloth placed over air vents keeps hair from circulating through the ductwork (if you have air conditioning for example), making it easier to keep dust down.

Good Luck!

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