Keeping Pet Fur Under Control: Floors

This is part two of a series. Read part one on clothing here.

Disclaimers: These may yield different results for short haired pets. I am not yet famous enough for affiliate links, so any linked items are a truly honest representation of my recommendations.

YOUR FLOOR

There are several tools to keep in your arsenal here, and the right combo for you will vary on the size of your spaces, materials, and your pets. Sadly, for mega shedders like my pups, robot vacuums and Swiffer cloths are no match without running or refilling them multiple times.

My top recommendation is a compact vacuum that works on both carpet and hard floors. I have had a Shark Navigator (picture above) for 5+ years and it is great for all the floors and a deep cleaning of the stairs or my couch. The brush hose extension can be also used on lamp shades, headboards, throw pillows, and more. This is the current available version. It swivels and turns very well, and is modular so you can remove the wheeled bottom and the handle becomes the actual hose/extension piece. For pets, you will want a vacuum with brush rollers or even a “pet” attachment to really grab on to fur. Periodically clean the hair off the bottom where the brush roller is or it will get entangled and be less effective.

Next up is a dust buster, or a mini, cordless hanheld vacuum. Despite my love for my Shark vacuum, I live in a four-story townhouse and lugging even a small vaccum around is challenging. The dust buster is my favorite for quick cleaning stairs and great for nabbing fur tumbleweeds. Since it’s small, you don’t necessarily have to move furniture around either (like around dining chair legs). It’s also great for other small spills like food crumbs or dirt near your doors. This has always been a family favorite for me, and I just recently got a replacement dust buster for the one I had for about 10 years. In my eyes, the only downfall of the dust buster is, by nature of being cordless, it eventually runs out of battery and you have to stop and recharge it (I’ve gone about 25-30 min).

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Then we have the rubber squeegee broom. This newcomer is good for a full hardwood room when I don’t want to get out the vacuum or I’ve already vacuumed and then my dogs have a wrestling match. It accomplishes what I wish the Swiffer would do for my floors (and did do, before pets). The main issue is that I would need 5+ dry sweep cloths to do just my living room. Fur and dirt get pushed around easily with the rubber broom, it fits under furniture, and you can also use it on multiple surfaces – hard floors, carpet, couches, rugs, etc. You will need to scrape it with more pressure on soft surfaces versus the sweeping motion on hard floors. You can also use it on the stairs, but I find it kicks the dirt around too much versus a dust buster, and I sweep a little too aggressively and scuff the white paint on my stair risers.

Robot Vacuums. There are some hardore fans of the robot vacuum, and I am not one. First, the container on my robot vacuum is smaller than the dust buster receptacle, and needs to be emptied at least 3 times in our main living area alone. Second, ours needs to be semi-monitored because it will get stuck on something like the corner of a floor mat or under a cabinet. If you have a smaller space, it can be a great time saver.

Dyson Vacuums. I was lucky enough to receive a cordless Dyson vacuum as a wedding gift. It is lightweight, but I think would work better in smaller spaces. The Dyson has a very small storage footprint and you can mount it to a wall or behind a door. I used it more in our last apartment than now. (I did give it a solid test run pre-wedding and cleaned a friend’s entire living area with theirs). The biggest flaw on the Dyson is it requires you to continuously hold a trigger down to run instead of a fixed “on” switch, which is fatiguing if you need to clean the whole house. I also find it less effective on stairs and carpet versus my Shark vacuum. On stairs, when the Dyson whooshes (powers) off, it blows some of the dirt around and leaves it behind. On carpet, I have to empty the fur out frequently and that diminshes some of the convenience of it being cordless.