How to Control Pet Hair in Your Home

Are you a cat or dog lover? Do you love your fur baby’s company, affection, and personality, but hate the hair they leave behind? If you are like most pet owners, controlling the hair that floats around your home, carpets, countertops, and furniture can be a task that builds up and feels overwhelming at times.

As a cat mommy to a black and white cat, my husband and I know far too well the hassel of trying to control hair floating around our living room, kitchen counters, and even table during dinnertime. Do you vacuum only to see tufts of hair crop up as soon as the vacuum cleaner goes back into the closet? Do you dust but suddenly walk out the door with hair clinging to your dress pants? These are just some of the frustrations we deal with as pet owners, but believe it or not there are tools and hacks you can use in your everyday life to not only control the pet hair in your home, but also make it easier to manage and even reduce the amount of unwanted pet dander left on your belongings.

Read below to learn about how to reduce the amount of shedding from your pet, tips to keep your pet healthy and potentially reduce hair loss, how to create a hair repellent home, tools you can use in your home to make clean-up easy, and training tips you can try to reduce hair in certain areas of your home.

Reduce the Amount of Hair Your Pet Loses

• Groom Frequently

Use a micro-fiber hand mitt to grab large quantities of hair while petting your fur baby. They will love the attention and soothing feeling of being pet while simultaneously getting groomed. The more frequently you brush and groom, the less they will shed around the house. Try grooming in the yard during the summertime or in the garage during colder months to contain the hair outdoors.

• Try a variety of brushes

Grooming should not be an unpleasant experience for owner or pet. If it’s too uncomfortable for either of you, the brush you are using might not be the right fit.

• Try a pet clipper or go for frequently hair cuts

Cat owners might want to think twice about shaving their kitty, but for dogs with long fur, frequent haircuts can make things much more manageable for both human and your dog.

• Frequent bathing

Bathing can also help. Scrubbing down to the deep hair bed and rinsing your pet with a shower head can help remove loose hairs.

Tools you can use to help groom and remove excess hair:

Check out your pet store to see some of the cool options available. There are even dryers and pet safe vacuums (much like a hair dryer) you can use to suck up extra loose hairs.

Tips for Keeping your Pet Healthy

Believe it or not, there are things you can do for your pet’s overall wellness that not only benefits their health, but could also result in potentially less hair loss!

Keep in mind that some pets will shed their undercoat hair more in the spring and summer months when the seasons begin to change. Consider more frequent grooming during these months or even taking them for a haircut a couple times of year to correspond with the changing weather.

Hair falling out in clumps accompanied by other signs your pet may be feeling sluggish could indicate more significant health issues.

Look for pet food that promotes a healthy coat. There are lots of options now on the market specifically designed to give your dog or cat strong, healthy hair.

Tools for Easy Clean-Up

• Try a HEPA Air Filter

Installing any air filter in your home can help purify the air including dander or dust particles from pet hair that might be flying around; but a HEPA filter in particular can help filter and capture those ultrafine particles that may be irritating to you or your family and even trigger allergies.

• Slipcovers for your Furniture

If the hair tends to congregate a lot on your furniture, consider a slip cover that can be easily removed and thrown into the washing machine. Not only will you reduce your vacuum time, but cleaning a slip cover once a week in the wash will keep your house looking a lot cleaner, too!

• Squeegees are Your Friend

This might just be my favorite life hack ever! Use a mini-squeegee (or a big one depending on the size of your pets) to “rake up” the hair off large surfaces like your sofa, easy chair, or even a rug. You will be amazed how quickly you can get it scooped into a pile and ditched into the trash in no time without anything left behind.

• Rubber Gloves

If you don’t have easy access to a squeegee, try rubber gloves instead. Gloves you use for washing dishes or in the kitchen sink work wonders, especially if they have built-in grips in the finger tips to catch fine hairs lying on top of fabric surfaces.

• Damp rag

Water can work wonders for clean-up. Slightly dampen an old rag and use it to collect the hair off of your counter tops or even fabric surfaces.

• Dryer Sheets

The static cling of dryer sheets offers a great option for capturing and collecting strands floating around your house. Then, simply toss into the trash when finished.

• Lint Rollers

Lint rollers of course work wonders. You may go through lots of sheets if you have large areas to clean-up, but they are great to pick up small stray hairs left behind or for fabric surfaces that are hard to reach.

• Vacuum Often

Our vacuum cleaner is the appliance that gets the most use in our home. Vacuuming often really is the best way to pick up hair from large surfaces. If your furry pall isn’t afraid of the noise you can even use the flat, hand-held attachment to suck the hair right off of your pet and collect it into the vacuum bag or canister!

• Try a Swiffer Duster

Apart from our vacuum cleaner, Swiffer dusters are great for attracting stray hair that lands on high surfaces like upper cabinets or even on fan blades. Consider investing in an adjustable, telescoping rod that will allow you to reach up high without risking a fall.

Create a Hair Repellant Home

Set up your home environment so it naturally repels your cat or dog’s hair and makes clean-up MUCH easier. For example, look for slick surfaces that repel hair or that are easy to wipe down or vacuum.

Some common examples of fabrics and materials to consider include:

Use lots of throw rugs around the house. This not only makes for easy vacuuming, but makes it easy to pick up the rugs, contain the hair, and dispose of it outdoors, getting it out of your house completely!

Training Tips for your Furry Critters

• Train your cat to curl up on a rug or cat tree instead of your kitchen table or counters by rubbing cat nip on the areas you want them to gravitate towards. Consistency is key here so frequently reapply cat nip to those areas until your cat starts to naturally frequent the area on their own.
• Also consider adding a pet bed or rug to each room that is cozy and appealing to your dog or cat. If placed in a common area, they will be more likely to be around you and your family but stay off your furniture and control the hair in certain areas around your home.
• Create pet-friendly areas. Consider installing a fabric-covered cat tree and scratching posts around your home (if you’re a cat owner) that will help trap some of the hair and encourage your pet to spend a lot of time there vs. other areas of the house. If you’re a dog owner, you might want to try having a “play area” in one room of your house dedicated to allowing your pet to run, roll, and play and contain the majority of stray hair to one room.

• If you are not yet a pet owner and have a severe allergy or sensitivity to excess hair, consider adopting a cat or dog breed that is allergy free or that tend to shed little to no hair. “Hypoallergenic” pets will produce less allergens than other breeds. Check out some great suggestions for both dog and cat breeds that are least allergy provoking to humans below:

Hypoallergenic dog breed suggestions:

Hypoallergenic cat breed suggestions:

Are you a proud pet momma or papa? What type of cat, dog, or pet do you own and what are some of your favorite ways to control stray hair or dander in your own home? Share your own tips and tricks in the comments, below!