The best pet-friendly cleaning tips
It is obvious that the world population crossed 8 billion in February of 2023, and more than half of the households that hold these humans on earth, have pets. Some have one, while others have many. This makes it very relevant to know how to clean up your homes with consideration for the furry or smooth friends who bring you boundless joy, love companionship and furs. These family members from other mothers do manage to bring in their fair share of mess into the homes, which could create challenges when it comes to maintaining a clean and healthy home for humans and pets. However, there exists a set of practicable pet-friendly cleaning tips that would benefit everyone who has a pet at home and has so far been finding it pretty challenging to maintain the healthy standard they would ordinarily want to have.
- 1. Ensure you buy Pet-friendly Cleaning Products: Whenever you find yourself in the stores for a cleaning product, knowing you have pets at home, always spend some time to find out if the chosen cleaning product is good for you as a human, your pet/s, and the environment. Ensure they are non-toxic, eco-friendly and without a harsh chemical in them. Always browse whatever seems unsure to you, to find out what they can do after being used. Also, there are natural alternatives to in-store purchases, like water, vinegar, and baking soda. The vinegar will bring its anti-fungal properties, making it good for cleaning tasks, and especially effective for mould cleaning exercises.
- 2. Pet Hair Removal: One thing pet owners dread, yet have to deal with, will be the fur-demic. Pets shading is a pandemic for pet owners, because being a natural process, this is something that comes with choosing to own a pet. Investing in a high-quality vacuum cleaner, always watch out for the ones, the manufacturer bragged about its pet hair removal abilities, especially the HEPA filters which trap the furs and allergens they bring with them. On couches and clothes, the lint rollers can easily remove furs.
- 3. Stain and Smell: When it comes to picking up after your pets around the home, acting quickly can make a big difference in pet accidents. Use a paper towel for stains, before cleaning the area with a pet-safe enzymatic cleaner to fight off the smell, which can be alternatively done by sprinkling baking soda on the spot of the accident before vacuuming for quick absorption of the pet odours.
- 4. Maintain regular grooming: If pets must shade their furs, then the most sensible thing to do, will be to maintain regular grooming of the pets to reduce the available furs for shedding, which will in turn be littered all over the home. You have options for this, from making an appointment with the dog groomer to either come to the house or making the trip to have them groomed. Secondly, you can do this grooming right at home by yourself, depending on your experience in the grooming game. Thirdly, you can have a friend or family member who is conversant with it, and they help you fix it for a good plate of meal, drink or full payment. Always ensure that the brushing and home grooming are done outside, where it can be easily swept up, which reduces indoor shedding.
- 5. Claw and Paw Protection: For the absolute sake of the innocent furniture and their expected scratches, tears and stains from these lovely four-legged family members who don’t know how much these items cost, please endeavour to cover your furniture and upholstery up, for longer life.
- 6. Check for Pet-friendly flowers: When you love flowers and pets then you have an extra responsibility to ensure that one doesn’t harm the other. It is going to look like the animals will always hurt the plants, but it is not always the case. So plants appear aesthetically pleasing to the eyes but are incredibly harmful to animals. So please, apply caution when using your in and outdoor plants, just so you prevent the animals from nibbling on the plants.
- 7. Litter Box care: I always say this, if you are a couch potato, not a morning person and you live alone, going through some mental illness that will leave you requiring care, going through some intense and long-lasting financial turbulence, then please this is not the time to have pets. They need some daily services for their and your health. I have walked into homes and seen the most disgusting litter boxes because the pets have had to look after themselves while the others handled other things health-wise. Even guard dogs and emotional support animals will need you to care for and feed them, before they play their part in your life. So scoop the litter box daily, and if you lay your hands on the self-cleaning ones, then that is an added advantage. position the litter box in a quiet part of your home, not the dark and creepy part though, dont completely scare the animal and have it change its mind from even getting to that part of the house. Ensure it is an accessible part of the home. Assuming you have trained the pets to know what to do for number numbers 1 &2.
- 8. Regularly Clean Out Pet Bedding: Washing pets’ feeding and drinking plates, bedding and blankets can help control odours and allergens, using pet-safe detergent, and only return when they are completely dry, to avoid mould growth.
- 9. Paw and Claw Care: When grooming your pets, do not overlook their claws and paws when you are grooming them yourself. Doing this will protect to a good extent, your well-loved furniture and household items. Taking a walk with the dog will have them come in contact with things outside, and they jump into bed and sofa with you when they get back home. So you have to either have a pair of convenient walking shoes, or a wet wipe to thoroughly wipe their legs after the walk to protect the health and that of the pet.
- 10. Emphasize pet corner/space using their belongings: When you are sure you want to designate a part of the house to your dog, then go ahead and relocate the dog’s belongings, the favourite item to the said corner, to pull them to that corner. Ensure the corner is made cosy and convenient for the pet, setting up their bed, their toys, food and water, and when necessary restricting gates can keep them in place. That way they stay away from some parts of the house at certain hours of the day, providing toys to help with boredom and curiosity, especially chew toys.
- 11. Ensure Regular Veterinary check-ups: As earlier mentioned, don’t own pets just because everyone else has one or two. They require attention and care, and one of them will be having them make their required trips to the vet for their vaccination. Having people stay and visit a home that has pets that are not being regularly vaccinated could be a disaster waiting to happen. This addresses their health, appearance and dietary issues or concerns, and makes everyone around the pets safe.
Finally, having a pet-friendly home is not about forgoing or replacing something you love with something else, it is about finding that middle course, where everyone and everything is considered balanced and safe. By incorporating the set of pet-friendly cleaning hacks into your everyday life, you and your furry friends can enjoy a clean and healthy home.
