Ask Mrs. Clean: House Cleaning, Stain Removal and Organizing Tips

[venitra]

I have a home cleaning business and one of my customers has 2 dogs that are kept in the house. The dogs are dark brown and black. I sweep and vacuum all of the floors before I mop them but it still takes me longer than I think it should to mop. While I am mopping, I have to bend down and get dog hair off of the wet floor. (no matter how good I sweep or vaccum, there is still a lot of dog hair on the floors) Any suggestions on how to get more dog hair up off the floors prior to mopping?

[mrscleannw]

Hi Venitra,
Welcome to Mrs. Clean! We feel your pain, animal hair can be frustrating, especially in large quantities. There is no magic answer here, but I?m happy to share some tips to help you out.

First of all, dump the broom! At this time we are cleaning 20-30 houses a day and there is not a broom in sight! We actually have 2 vacuums in our cleaning arsenal.

One is an upright vacuum with a beater brush for carpets, and we use a small canister vac with a bare floor attachment to clean hair, dust and dirt from the hard floors. A broom, though useful for small bits of debris, does not do so well with hair and dust and is not as efficient as a brisk vacuuming. It makes very short work of a floor in only 1 pass.

Animal hair is a pain as the dander and oils attached to the hair make it ?sticky?, if any hair remains on hard floors the addition of a quick pre-mop with plain damp water will get any stragglers.

I hope this helps!

[venitra]

Thank you so much. I will try it next week.

[mrscleannw]

Good luck Venitra! Let us know how this works out!

[jmismith]

I have an older dog that sheds a bag of hair every week! For the carpet I spray watered down fabric softener to break the static. That is working pretty well. But for the floors, it is taking a lot of labor to vacuum them.

I am using a shop vac to clean it up. It is too big, and hard to move around. I was wondering...what brand or model vacuums do you like to use?

JMISMITH

Phoenix Arizona

[mrscleannw]

Hi jmismith,
we use 2 vacuums for cleaning. The models we use have varied over the years, but after much trial and error, we have found a couple good ones that do a great job, but also hold up well. As you can imagine, we are very hard on our vacuums, as each of our teams cleans approx 6 homes a day.

I am also seriously not impressed my many of the bells and whistles (such as headlights on the vac) that some models "feature" IMO these are just marketing gimmicks that do little (or nothing) to improve the quality of the job and end up being one more thing that can break.

We use 1 upright vacuum, the brand is riccar supralite model RSL3. We also use a canister vacuum: Sanitaire SC3686, which comes with several attachments used for dusting blinds, and cleaning in tight spots, or on furniture and vents, etc.

The canister vac is used for stairs, edging carpets and all hard surface floors. (not a broom in sight here!)

We have found these models to work really well, and they rarely need serious repair. They are not the cheapest vacuums you will find, but they are not the most expensive either.

Keep in mind that our needs are not only for a good vacuum suction, but also it's reliability, and given the heavy use our vacuums get, it must be very sturdy and well made.
We have vacuum cleaner reviews with specific brands and models on house cleaning central.

[JeannaLW]

As a closely related question, I hope this is ok to post here.

I have two cats, and though I have little trouble with the floors, they LOVE my couch! Vacuuming the cushions doesn't even touch it. I have a good upright vacuum but it didn't come with a lot of attachments; perhaps they'd help, but I really can't afford to buy another vacuum just for the couch! Lint rollers do remove the fur, somewhat, but I'd go through an entire roll on just a small portion of the couch -- it takes forever that way, and STILL leaves some hair. I'm also a little concerned about leaving a sticky residue on the cushions.

Currently, I'm running my hands firmly over the cushions to 'roll' the hair off. This gets it off in great clumps (they really do shed a LOT) but still doesn't come close to getting them clean. I've tried a pretty throw blanket over the couch, but it didn't help a bit (didn't stay in place, my family uses it too much) and I really dislike slipcovers.

Any ideas to de-fur a couch?

[GalHirado]

Use a lint roller to remove pet fur from your furniture.

[AnnaMae]

My own dog, thankfully, is short-haired and doesn't shed, but my former roommate had a long-haired border collie and a Maine Coon Cat :shock: and, of course, they both loved to crash on a couch that boasts what I despairingly called "a pet-hair magnetic texture" :(

Don't ask which Housecleaning Muse inspired me to this technique, but it worked, and I've since passed it along to friends with similar problems, and they thanked me for its success:

Don a pair of close-fitting rubber gloves that have a textured surface (good ole "Playtex Living Gloves" work best, in my experience) and take up a top-quality close-textured sponge (ie., one that doesn't shred easily). Thoroughly wet the sponge with warm water, then wring it out 'til it's no longer sopping, just "generously damp," so to speak. Make sure your gloves are also moist. Have a wastebasket at hand.

Thus supplied, my "technique" is to firmly stroke the hair away in a sponge-over-gloved-hand motion, casting off whatever the glove and the sponge have picked up into the wastebasket after each successful stroke, and re-moistening the sponge and gloves as needed.

At times, I never even bothered with the sponge, just kept stroking my warm-water-moistened rubber gloves over the fabric in a hand-over-hand motion.

See if this helps you. :D Cheers :D

[CleanMachine]

What part of the country are you in? Do you have the time to brush your pet regularly? I used to make an extra effort to brush my chow-mix outside as often as possible. It prevented a lot of problems.

[AnnaMae]

Dear Friends ... I apologize for not replying, but ... a cold turned into the flu, the flu turned into bronchitis, the bronchitis turned into pneumonia and the pneumonia turned into a lengthy hospitalization followed by an even-lengthier bout of doctor-ordered home bed rest ... :cry:

To belatedly and apologetically answer Ms. Clean Machine's good question: I live in a "winter-free" climate (deep desert southwest) so my former roommate had no excuse about her failing to brush her long-haired Border Collie and equally long-haired Maine Coon Cat outdoors any day of the year :( . I am now happily "roommate free" :wink: and no longer have to clean up behind anybody but myself and my short-haired dog, who doesn't shed :D .

I also got rid of the "pet-hair magnet" couch along with the roomie :P !

My beloved dog is a rescue case and neither the vet nor I can figure out what her breed is (and she's not telling :D!) She does resemble either an Italian Greyhound that got put on steroids, or, a brown-and-white Dobie who got shrunk in the clothes dryer :lol:! Her short, tight coat is smooth and delightful to the touch, and she keeps herself as clean as a cat 8) !

A bachelor friend called me recently in despair: his grown kids brought the grandkids plus their new Chow-type pup over for a visit and left his couch in equal despair -- I was still quite ill, but I managed to croak out my rubber-glove/moist sponge advice to him, and he called back later, rejoicing and grateful at the results. I further advised him, re your good post, to have the kids brush Mr. Chow outside before bringing him into Gran'pa's bachelor digs again :lol: !

[1stclasscleaning]

I too have a dog with long hair but always use vacuum cleaner to clean the hairs but now I have purchased a new cushion and now I am facing the problem of getting my cushion off with the hairs.Can any one tell me how to get it clean initially there was no such cleaning problem as it was leather.

[mrscleannw]

Hello 1stclasscleaning and welcome back!
Is this leather cushion suede? Let me know so I can send you more information.
Mrs. Clean

[1stclasscleaning]

Hello madam yes its leather cushion but I too have simple cushion of cloth and want to get rid of my dogs hair out of it.

[1stclasscleaning]

Madam the cushion i ma talking about is having velvet cloth cover and I think that its making it more hard for me get hairs clean from it.