Why You Should Keep a Pet-Friendly Home

When you bring a pet home and decide to share your life with him, you’re signing up for a huge commitment. You want your pets to be happy, clean, and comfortable. So, you get them the best food, grooming, and living environment for them. This includes your couch, upholstery, blankets, floor, kitchen counter, shelves, our car, and all of their favorite spots to hide in.

A pet-friendly home has to be clean. And no, the pets aren’t going to help you because you will be doing the work. Don’t worry, it’s easy, fuss-free, and takes up only a little of your time.

Golden Rules to Follow in a Carpeted, Pet-Friendly Home

• Earmark specific areas of your house which you would like and would not like to share with your pet. Be consistent about enforcement.
• Give your pet a comfortable bed of his own. Do not allow him to climb into your bed. If you’re into snuggling with your pets on your bed, just make sure you clean it, both for your and your pets’ sakes.
• Make sure to arrange regular grooming appointments for your pet. Without these sessions, your pet will only become furrier and will end up shedding in your home.
• When pets get bored or have nothing to keep them occupied, they start gnawing at, scratching, and chewing on things. To combat this, make sure they get sufficient exercise.

The Pet Hair Nightmare on Carpets Can be Avoided

Are you dreading the clumps of hair that stick to your furnishings and hairballs that hide in all the unreachable places of your home? Fear no more!

We know it’s unsightly and even unhealthy, in some cases causing severe allergic reactions. We understand that you’re tired of constantly using Swiffer dusters, hand-held vacuum cleaners, and brooms and dustpans to clean it all up.

Just nip the problem in the bud (or follicles, to be literal) by:

Brushing and Bathing

• Brush your pets’ hair thrice a week. The hair will gather in the brush and not in the air or your beloved furnishings and carpets. Don’t be elaborate. Just a quick one would do!
• Brush them outdoors, if possible. This improves your home’s indoor air quality, both for you and your pets
• Make sure you have proper grooming tools for your pets. Check with your breeder/vet to figure out what works best for your pet.
• If you have a cat, brushing it will help mitigate certain hair-related health problems such as constipation and hairballs, which in turn, will work in keeping your home clean.
• If you have particularly valuable carpets, engage the best to maintain a clean and stain-free carpets.
• When it comes to bathing, cats can clean themselves, unless they’re sick or aged.
• Under normal circumstances, dogs can be bathed once a month. Bathing them too much and too often can lead to the drying out of the natural oils in their skin leading to a lackluster coat.
• However, if your dog has been out and rolling in the mud/dirt, they can be bathed more than once in a month with a dog shampoo.
• If there is a particular rug that your pets seem to inhabit and claim all for themselves, do consider rug cleaning services.

Air Filters

• Certain breeds of dogs, cats, and other animals tend to shed more hair frequently. This is when air filters come into the picture. Make sure they’re in good working condition at all times. If your pets shed habitually, or if you have too many pets, you will need to change the filters more often, in addition to grooming them.
• It is best to check your filters once or twice a month to be able to determine as to for how long they can endure, and change them accordingly. This will help you avoid become a victim of several allergies.
• You could also conduct home health checks and even purchase your own Air Quality DIY Kits for the best air for you and your pets.

Cleaning Upholstery

• More often than not, pets have a fixed place where they rest/play. This could be an area rug, a carpet or the couch. Ideally, these spots should have a covering, such as a towel, which should be removed and washed at least once every week.
• If your pet sleeps on the bed, limit their access to the bedroom during the day by keeping the doors closed or installing baby gates. Do place an old bedsheet over your bedding before sleeping, and change it at least once a week. A towel, rug or a small blanket may work for a small-sized pet.
• Place old towels or newspapers at the door your pet uses and teach him to dry and clean his wet, muddy feet before entering the house.
• For the best environment for you and your family (pets included, of course), it is best to engage professional cleaning services for your upholstery maintenance.

General Cleanliness Tips for Pet Owners with Residential Carpets

Certain pets tend to walk on surfaces that have food, dust or sand on them. You don’t want the dirty paws that have touched the litter and other dirty surfaces in the clean areas, do you? Even if they don’t leave dirty tracks behind, your pets could bring organisms like toxoplasmosis to dinner tonight, for instance.

To prevent this, make it a point to clean your counters with an anti-bacterial and pet-friendly cleaning agents, before and after serving food. Apart from that, keep your chopping boards, knives, and other cooking tools in your kitchen cabinets/drawers.

Pets can pass on intestinal parasites to humans, especially those with vulnerable immune systems. It is, therefore, important to keep them in good health and ensure your house is free of unwanted ailments. Speak to your vet about prescribing medication that can combat fleas and keep your pet healthy.

People who pet reptiles and amphibians have their own set of concerns to think about. While they do not shed or climb on countertops, they can be carriers of dangerous viruses. To prevent them from affecting you and your family, keep their habitats clean. Do not wash them in the kitchen sink. Try the laundry sink or the bathtub instead.

Further, keep pet food covered instead of leaving them out in the open as that can attract rodents and other vermin.

Conclusion

Having a clean house with pets may be challenging, but it isn’t impossible. Patience, experience, and common sense help. The above tips should enable new pet owners to keep their home neat and tidy whilst still enjoying the company of their loveable four-legged friends.