Friday, September 3, 2010

Low-Tech Carpet Cleaning

These two golden big boys generate a lot of dustballs. The left dog sheds twice as much as the cheerful fellow on the right.

I obsess a bit when company comes trying to get all the dog hair off our floors. I finally realized that if people have dogs, they'll understand. If they don't have dogs, even one hair is too many.

But still, I don't like when the dining room carpet gets matted with dog hair. Vacuuming won't pick it up. Brushing with a dog brush helps a bit. Even a dog comb still leaves dog hair. I've tried everything I can think of and the colors still look faded.

Never let it be said that I don't give credit where credit is due. Keith, who rarely vacuums or sweeps, discovered that if he drags his foot firmly across carpet, dog hair comes up. It is the coolest thing ever.


At first I wore winter boots, but the dog hair matted into the shoe tread and wouldn't come off. So now I usually wear tennis shoes.

The good news is this really works to get dog hair up. The bad news is I can get this much hair everyday. Sigh!

These pictures don't show a huge dramatic difference, but in real life foot dragging helps my carpets look presentable. I really like it when the carpet hasn't been dragged for awhile and I get a nice big pile of dog hair. My family accuses me of being OCD about dog hair but I could have worse quirks.

I don't know if this works with all kinds of dog hair, but it works well with Golden Retriever hair. This may not be the most exciting blog post you'll ever read, but if you have long-haired dogs who shed a lot, you'll thank me.

13 comments:

  1. Hey lady!!

    Dear hubs uses this method for gathering up lab hair also! Hmmmm, maybe it is a guy thing... At any rate it works, soYEAH!

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  2. Your dogs are GORGEOUS. I have twi Irish Setters so I feel your pain. I love the dogs but not the hair...or the big poo...or the vomit. LOL I like that method!

    Sorry if this is a repeat comment, my computer is being wonky ;)

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  3. Oh we had this issue with Danka. Her hair was long and would stick to anything or float in the air because it was kind of cottony. I got this rubber type brush broom thing and all you have to do it use it like a push broom and it comes right up.

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  4. Haha, that is a very creative way of cleaning a carpet!

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  5. You are the true Prov. 31 woman. It's the part about "she looketh well to the ways of her household", or maybe this one "she looks for wool and flax".

    You could weave it and make dog hair garments!!

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  6. Have you seen this?
    http://www.dogchatforum.com/remove-dog-hair-carpet.htm

    or this?
    http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf925874.tip.html

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  7. Thanks Pam for the links. It never occurred to me to look on the internet for ways to get up dog hair. That's what friends are for.

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  8. I think your daughter's face says it all! My husband uses his hand as a broom and rubs it over the carpet until all the hair comes off. Luckily, in our new parsonage, the carpet is dark, so it's not as noticeable!!

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  9. Nothing looks worse on your floor than a dusty, ragged, threadbare carpet, but with proper cleaning and care it hopefully won't come to this.

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  10. Not only the carpet cleaning important. Also kilims, kilim pillows and kilim cushions mut be cleaned as well as carpets.

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  11. Hey, this technique is really practical! No nothing just yourself, more or less. :D However, you may want to try my trusted technique. Simply sprinkle baking soda on the carpet, let it sit in for a few minutes, and then vacuum as you normally do. It can also help to deodorize your room! :D

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  12. It’s really tricky to collect dog hairs from the carpet, especially if they are less than half an inch long. They will just stick to the carpet fiber when you sweep it through. The best idea for that is to use a rubber stick and brush it over the carpet, so that the hair will stick to the rubber. I hope it works for you!

    Gail Wallace @ Emergency Flood Masters

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