Comments on: Techniques for taming pet fur tumbleweeds

By: Janet, The Organizing Genie

Janet, The Organizing Genie — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:49:51 +0000

We have 2 cats and I highly recommend the Roomba too.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:27:14 +0000

I as well am a Roomba fan. Bonus points if you can get your (small) pet to ride on it as it goes around the room. Efficient and entertaining!

By: Tere

Tere — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:31:54 +0000

I put cut-to-size folded over cheesecloth in the heating/AC ducts and misted each of them with oil. This is replaced once a year. No restriction of airflow. I also got rid of all my carpeting; had laminate flooring put down, my place is much cleaner. Much easier to run the vacuum with only the floor brush attachment, I don’t bother to change attachments when I do the upholstered furniture. I can tell which piece of furniture my cats sleep on by the amount of hair gets stuck on the brush. Since my 3 cats sleep on my bed, I do the bed too. Surprising how much hair clings to the brush. Something else for many to think about. How often do you open your windows and allow fresh air to come in? I haven’t used my air conditioning at all this summer. I have an indoor/outdoor thermometer/hygrometer and let the combination temp and humidity level outdoors determine whether to run the window fan or close my place up and run a table fan. Opening your windows (but not during allergy season, of course) makes all the difference in the world.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:58:27 +0000

I can heartily recommend Dyson, an English brand of vacuum cleaners. I adore mine. It’s a joy to use. Friends and family who raised an eyebrow at the initial investment have been converted (I’ve even taken it to friends’ houses for a demo!). Who would have thought I’d enjoy vacuuming?!
Regarding pet fur, I have a few lint rollers around the house – I’m in Australia, and a good one here is called the Aussie Lint Roller (nice ‘n’ simple!).

I’m concerned at the various suggestions here to bathe cats twice a month, shave them etc. Pets mean fur. Get over it. Cats have natural oils in their fur. Washing too often upsets the balance in their fur/skin.

Love this site.

Jenny
Australia

By: Shelly

Shelly — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:57:15 +0000

Get kitty a shave! I have a long haired calico kitty and once or twice a year she goes to a groomer (who will do cats) and she gets a “lion” cut. The lady is so good at it, she even puts cotton in kitty’s ears so the noise doesn’t bother her. Doing this, made a HUGE impact on the amount of kitty dander in my house and the added bonus was…no more hairballs for her! When her coat does grow back out, it’s really beautiful. Of course, I don’t have her trimmed during winter, but she’s a house cat anyway so it probably doesn’t matter.
Consider doing this…I’m amazed at the LACK of hair around the house!

By: Caroline

Caroline — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 09:12:10 +0000

Hi! I realize it’s kind of too late to comment on this, but I have a German Shepard mix, a rottweiler mix, and my boyfriend has a cat. I also recently purchased the FURminator (www.furminator.com), and it’s freakin awesome. I filled up tons of grocery bags full of hair, and it made a noticeable difference in the furry tumbleweeds throughout my apartment. I use it about once every other week. A word of advice though, get the smallest size they make for dogs, the bigger one is just the same except wider and costs $30 more. Plus it’s easier to brush around their ears and necks.

By: Dr. Patty Khuly

Dr. Patty Khuly — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:25:18 +0000

OK, I’ll jump on the Roomba bandwagon myself. As a vet, I also recommend the Furminator pet brush–it gets out all the dense, flyaway undercoat most likely to bunch into dustbunnies. I talk about it so much on my blog you’d think this company would cough up some sponsorship $. Bathing helps immensely and fatty acid supplements and skin/thyroid checks are critical for those that lose huge hunks of fur. Great blog!

By: wiezy

wiezy — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:34:02 +0000

I 100% agree with Rachel. The Swiffer Sweeper Vac hangs on my kitchen wall charging and is nothing like pulling out a big vac. I also use both sides of the Swiffer clothes to reduce waste.

By: dog houses

dog houses — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:08:28 +0000

Well, I suggest Roomba too! I think that’s better cuz as compared to other vacuum, it cleans under the bed.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:07:09 +0000

My husband is an AC Tech and even the reliable filters may need to be changed more than seasonally. Make it a habit to look at your filter in your return at least monthly.

Microfiber rags are amazing and reusable–a big plus over Swiffers. I wince at the thought of how popular microfiber upholstery has become. We’ve got chenille and it’s challenging enough. A quick swipe with a lint brush gets the worst of it.

By: lana

lana — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 01:00:09 +0000

I just gotta give props on the dog portrait. I saw it flickr a few months ago and fell in love. Excellent job, Matt.

I’m also a fan of the Roomba. Not only does it perform better than expected, it seems to have helped all of our allergies too since I use it more often than our regular vacuum. My only complaint is that it’s seriously noisy (and it takes too long to dock itself when done), but overall the pluses outweigh the minuses.

The microfiber mop is another great suggestion. It fits under low tables and things that the Roomba can’t get under.

By: verily

verily — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:00:39 +0000

I just vacuum. It does the trick and doesn’t bat a lash at all the combined pet hair from a lab and three cats.

As for the couches, I gave up the battle. I just flip the cushions when guests come over.

By: Anthrodiva

Anthrodiva — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:07:33 +0000

Hi,

I am surprised no one voted for a Bissell sweeper:

http://www.berings.com/Product.....uct=610422

Lighter and smaller and much quieter than a vaccuum – it’s a pleasure to use daily “zoop zoop” picking up larger detritus, and a child can use it and have fun with it as well.

By: lala

lala — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 01:18:32 +0000

i got a roomba for christmas. it’s the silver one (not top of the line), and it’s got this little side brush that extends beyond the round robot body that spins and gets the corners and along the baseboards. i love that it goes under my bed too. even though my dog seems to deal with it pretty well, i found that it’s great to turn it on in the morning and let it do it’s thing while we are out for our morning walk (25-30 mins). it picks up a lot, and i couldn’t be happier with it.

By: twosandalz

twosandalz — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:35:41 +0000

Here’s a vote for a little hand vac. My good friend keeps pet hair in check with one of these. She runs over problem spots (including furniture) in a couple rooms per day, and also vacuums weekly. The hand vac work is quick and not thorough, but is enough to keep the hair count low between vacuuming.

By: lantzilla

lantzilla — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:51:12 +0000

Tick another for the Roomba. While Erin notes that it doesn’t do a sufficient job, it does however keep the volume in check. If it picks up 80% leaving you to only deal with 20%, you’re still playing a winning game. In addition, it picks up run-of-the-mill dust and crap, so it’s really a win-win. In my pet hair situation, most of the problem pet hair that my house accumulates is under the bed. This is exactly where the Roomba shines.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:30:04 +0000

I had a pleasant surprise when I discovered that my new microsuede couch slipcovers were cat hair resistant. They are machine washable and dryable – I bought them because we have a toddler, and as you all know, toddlers are sticky. I washed the slipcovers yesterday – full size sofa and love seat and I had NO pet hair in the dryer lint trap. None.

By: CJ

CJ — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:35:44 +0000

I personally use the standard Swiffer sweeper (slightly damp) to get the fuzziest of the bunnies, especially the ones that live under my living room furniture. However, we also get giant fuzzies on the bed, the furniture, our clothes, etc. and get rid of them with the FourPaws Magic Pet Hair Remover.

Here’s my review: http://savechange.wordpress.co.....-n-roller/

They works wonders and they’re better for the environment waste-wise than the sticky kinds.

By: Janine

Janine — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:18:03 +0000

For pet hair that’s stuck to furniture, Sticky Sheets (http://www.stickysheets.com) are pretty amazing. They’re just what they sound like–large (2 feet by 3 feet) sheets of clear adhesive tape that pick up pet hair really well. We have a cat who enjoys sleeping on a dog bed and it was covered (and I mean covered) with cat fur. Our Dyson couldn’t make a dent. Sticky Sheets cleaned took all that fur off that bed.

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 07:45:27 +0000

Another shout out for the Furminator.
Treat the problem at the root