Household Tips: How to remove pet hair from furniture
Forremoving pet hair from upholstery in your house and car an easy method is to use a rubber glove. Gloves with a raised grip work better. Put the glove on and run it under the tap to make it wet then shake off excess moisture. Run your fingers over the pet hair areas in short scraping strokes. You will find that the hair is easily removed and it is especially easy to get into nooks and crannies and areas down the back of your sofa.
You can also use a dampened sponge. Rub the sponge in a downward motion over your chairs, cushions and car upholstery.
Pet stores carry specially made tools for removing hair including rubber rakes, hair removal sponges and pet hair magnets. Pet hair rollers are another solution. They are a small hand held roller which come supplied with disposable perforated sheets of sticky paper. The idea is to roll the pet roller over the area of pet hair and the hair sticks to the sticky paper.
Asimilar method of removing dog and cat hair is to wrap packing or duct tape around your hand, sticky side facing out and pat this over the furniture or car seats.
Rub a clothes-dryer fabric-softener sheet over the pet hair. The softener in the sheet makes it easy to pick up the hair.
A lint brush (pictured right) brushed one way only over fabrics is also useful for removing dog hair.
How to remove pet hair from carpets
Some breeds of dogs, especially short hair breeds have hair that stick into your carpet like fine little needles and are not easily removed by vacuuming.
Rubber brooms can be used on these stubborn hairs. The rubber bristles work with static electricity and the dog hairs just seem to jump on to the brush. Another method is sweeping with a stiff bristle brush before vacuuming.
If time and energy are not a problem to you, you can go over your carpet with a rubber glove or damp sponge to remove the hairs.
Try mixing some fabric softener with water and mist it on to your carpet with a spray bottle. Don't saturate the carpet, just a fine mist is all you need. Allow to dry. After the carpet is dry, go over with your vacuum cleaner.
You can vacuum the dog! Really. I always vacuumed my dog before I vacuumed the carpet. I started when he was young and he grew to love it. I used the little brush tool and worked it all over his body. A great way to get rid of the dog hair before it hit the carpet. He always came running to get his vacuum massage whenever he heard the vacuum cleaner start up.
Buy a new vacuum cleaner
You might want to invest in a new vacuum cleaner. Dyson make a specially designed vacuum cleaner that removes animal hair. It's called the Dyson Animal. It may be a difficult decision to buy an expensive vacuum cleaner but if you are a pet lover and you are likely to have cats or dogs in the house for most of your life then the initial cost could be money well spent to save your from the 'pet hair blues'.
How to remove pet hair from clothing
All of the above methods for removing pet hair from furniture can used to remove hair from clothing. In addition another handy hint is to put the item of clothing in the clothes dryer for 20 minutes. The lint filter should remove the problem.