Clean Pet Hair Off Carpets And Rugs

If you have a dog or cat that sheds, you know how tough a chore it can be to keep up after all that hair. Fur balls get everywhere and they can be almost impossible to clean. It’s not as difficult to remove it from hard flooring like wood and linoleum, but one of the hardest places to remove pet hair can be the carpet or a throw rug. Not only will you have the fluffy stuff coating the surface, you will also have hair and fur that get buried deep in the nap, which only makes it more difficult to remove. Even the best vacuum cleaners can have a hard time removing all of the pet hair from a carpet, and if you don’t have a good one, you are pretty much guaranteed to leave some behind. This can be especially troublesome for those of us that have allergies, but it is also annoying to anyone that just wants to keep their home clean.  If you want to have clean carpets despite your shedding animal, then you may need a better tool.

Top Recommendations

Below are a few techniques that are commonly mentioned, and these should actually work to some degree. Following these are some other techniques that you will find on the internets, but those will be less likely to actually work, and more likely to have you searching for something better.

Pet Hair Vacuum – Because your regular one will not do a thorough job as you have already discovered, most “experts” will recommend getting one that costs two or three times as much so that it actually works on this common chore. These will come with fancy attachments or special rollers, but even then, they may not completely eliminate the hair, and in most cases these tool are out of people’s budgets anyway. Even if your vacuum can suck up most, or all, of the fur, the smell can be pretty bad, and stuff like dander and other small particles will often fly around to irritate your nose and then settle back down after you finish. If you only have a run of the mill model then it will not have the capability to de-fur your carpet completely, so you will be left searching for other solutions if you want a clean rug. Not many people like to do the same job twice, so less than stellar vacuum cleaner owners often just deal with the fur.

Something Sticky – There are many different sticky tools out there, and you can even make your own by rolling box tape around your hand, or something similar. Obviously hair and fur will stick to tape and other tacky surfaces, and this will lift it off your rug for sure. The main downside is that these tools and techniques will only pick up the stuff lying on the surface. Any hair that is deeper into the carpet due to foot traffic will still be there after you finish. A large sticky roller ^[1] would probably be the best one of these to use, but even they have some drawbacks. Although you can quickly roll over an area to eliminate fur, they are really only good for small spaces. As soon as the roller or piece of tape or whatever else you are using gets coated, it will no longer be sticky, so it will stop working. You can grab more tape, or peel a layer off your roller, but this can be time consuming and expensive. Using a reusable sticky roller ^[2]will save you some cash, but it will still be time consuming to clean a whole rug. For this reason, these options are best used for a small area rug where your dog sleeps or something similar. Full house carpet cleaning would be impractical and frustrating using the something sticky method.

Something Rubber – Many people will tell you to use a rubber glove, rubber shoe, pet grooming mitt, or even a balloon. Although these ideas sound pretty silly, the concept is actually sound. The main problem with these techniques is that they will have you crawling all over the floor to get the job done. If your rug is so dirty that you need to clean it, why would you want to touch it more, or bring your face closer. You may find that these will be adequate for beds or your furniture, but a rubber broom is a much better option for carpeting. More on that later. These rubber products work well due to the material, and the charge created, but you might want to think twice before you rub a dirty shoe across your floor. Also the smoother options will not be as good as those with some texture to them. One advantage over the sticky stuff is that the rubber stuff will pull up hair that is deeper down, so you can potentially do a better job. When you rub these across the rug, a charge will build that causes fur to be drawn in. This helps to pull it up and keep it up, and much will remain touching and controlled by the tool you are using. If you are going to go with the small rubber item method, this brush ^[3]would be a better choice than the other common recommendations above.

Not So Top Recommendations

If you are searching for a better way to clean up the fur balls tumbling around your home, then chances are you will read about the ones that follow. Although these may be effective in some situations, they all seem to be more trouble than they are worth, and they all require you to vacuum first and then go back and clean the floor again. That does not sound like fun, and anytime you are cleaning anything twice, you probably did it wrong the first time.

Sponge Mop – Yep. Mop your carpet. Sounds smart right? You be the judge. It is true that fur will stick to a wet mop, but why anyone would want to clean pet hair off a carpet or rug with this technique is puzzling. In order to use this method, you will have to vacuum first with your machine that does not work well enough to do the job, and then get out your mop to finish. It gets even better when you are told to bend over and pick up the wet clumps of fur with your hand to finish the job. The basic concept is to use a damp mop, rub it across your rug in order to pile and collect hair, and then somehow pick it up for disposal. It will work to attract hair because it is wet, but you will never get the stuff that is deep down, and this is typically the same stuff that your vacuum has left behind. For surface hair, or hair on hard flooring this may be a more viable technique. Another bonus of this genius level option is that you will be left with a carpet that is wet. If you have ever smelled a wet dog then you will quickly realize why this would be a problem.

Fabric Softener – Oh yeah! Awesome idea. Lets spray down some neurotoxins that we never remove in order to eliminate the fur. That way you can poison your pet as punishment for shedding in the first place. In all seriousness, this stuff can be extremely hazardous to your health, and the softermaterial and lavender scent  is not really an even trade off, especially when you consider that it will probably not even do a good job. For this method, you are once again going to vacuum with your inadequate tool, and you will then follow that by lightly spraying a mixture of fabric softener and water all over. You are not supposed to take it off immediately, instead you are told to let it dry in place. This will most likely make your carpet feel funny due to the residue, and as previously stated, you will now have dangerous chemicals coating your floor. In theory, the liquid will reduce the bond that the hair has with the carpet so that when you go over it again, more will come up.

Baking Soda – No this is not a cookie baking article, this is another lack luster solution to your fur covered carpet. The concept is similar to the fabric softener method, but this one is far safer for you and your pet. One actual benefit of this technique is that baking soda has the ability to deodorize your carpet when you sprinkle it on there. It is also absorbent, and these characteristics combined make it less suited for this task, and better used on something like a pee stain. To try this method, simply sprinkle a bit all over where the hair is, let it sit for a while, and then come back with your vacuum. The baking soda is supposed to make the hair less sticky, and therefore, it should suck up more easily. You may get some decent results with this method, but it does not seem to have the ability to get the hair deep in the nap any better that your Hoover would alone.

A Better Way

The Sweepa Rubber Broom ^[4] is easily one of the best ways to collect pet hair form carpets, rugs or any other type of floor in your home. It’s funny how many Internet experts will tell you to crawl on the floor with a rubber glove, but not even mention a rubber broom. They all agree that rubber is a great material for pet hair, but the things they tell you to try are guaranteed to be much more frustrating to use.  It seems like the same material on the end of a stick would be much easier to manage, and becuase you don’t have to put your face close to the grime, a lot more people will actually use it. Also, unlike balloons and gloves that are smooth, the long flexible bristles allow you to clean down deep instead of just on the top.

How It Works

The key to functionality is in the high quality rubber head. The natural rubber materail combines with the flexible bristles to make a powerful tool to lift up and eliminate pet hair from your carpet. Individual bristles will dig down deep when necessary to pull out hair that has been mashed down to become stuck, and at other times, they will form a solid wall to sweep away hairs without leaving anything behind. As you use it, the friction with the carpet, along with the high quality rubber, will build a charge that only makes your job easier as it helps you to get things even more clean. This charge acts like a magnet for pet hair, lifting it out of the carpet and pulling it in towards the broom. The sweepa will even remove pet hair that the vacuum leaves behind. This unique static build up also keeps the hair from flying all over the place, only to land somewhere new. It will not stink, you will not get the area wet, there are no chemicals being introduced, you will not be frustrated, or bled dry with roller refills, and you never have to get on your knees to get the job done. It will get more hair up than anything else you have used, and it is actually rather easy to use.

How To Use It

• When using this broom to clean pet hair from carpeting or area rugs, always pull it towards yourself. It can be used as a push broom on hard floors, but on a carpet, pulling is the only way to go.
• Simply pull the broom towards you with a standard sweeping action, but make sure to use short but deliberate strokes. These short strokes increase the charge and help to get the bristles deep to pull up fur.
• While cleaning, the sweepa bristles form a “wall” that will collect every piece of dirt, dust and hair from your carpet. As you move across the floor, hair will remain close to the broom, and it will not fly around.
• Keep moving in one direction as you walk backwards across the floor. Fur will begin to pile and remain close as you drag it along.
• One the area is clean, collect with a dust pan, and dispose in the trash.
• Use it on any type of rug no matter how plush or flat for the same level of results. It is ideal for high traffic areas or where your dog or cat takes a nap, but you can also use it for larger areas without taking too much time. It also works great for pet hair on tile, linoleum, vinyl and hardwood, so once you finish this job, keep on sweeping to eliminate grime on any other floor too.

High Quality = Easy Cleaning

Not all similar looking brooms are created equal, but the design and material on ours has proven to power through this job, and last for many years without wear.  Other versions usually cost more, but do not provide the same increase in usefulness. If you are able to find one for less money, good luck with the quality. The material is very important for functionality, but so is the design. Other rubber fur brooms will have softer bristles and cheaper handles, and some really bad ones even have a plastic head with rubber attached to that. Soft material will not give you the friction necessary, and multi part heads are notorious for falling apart. If you end up with a cheapo model that has a flimsy handle, then the frustration over a head that does not work will quickly turn into more frustration over your bent or broken pole. Despite the fact that our broom is the best one available, we also try to sell it at the lowest possible price. Because it is proven to work well, you don’t have to throw away money and guess about results. One thing is for sure, if you have a problem with a shedding dog or cat, this tool will offer you a good way clean the hair off your carpet.

Sweepa Rubber Broom ^[4]