Sharing our tips and tricks on how to clean pet hair from hardwood floors! With four cats, it’s a daily struggle, but we’ve found some of the best cleaning tools for fur along the way!
That post title is a bit of a mouthful, right? Well, anytime I post a picture of our entryway hallway on Instagram, I typically get several questions about how we keep our hardwood floors so clean – especially with four cats! I have additional tips on keeping a beautiful home with pets if you want even more ideas! It offers general cleaning tips for furniture, etc. But today, I’m sharing how to clean pet hair from hardwood floors.
ENTRYWAY SOURCES: Chandelier | Swing Arm Sconces | Bench | Console Table
As you can see in the picture above, we have fairly dark oak hardwood floors. The hand-scraped style, along with varying length and width pieces, helps to disguise a bit of the dirt, dust, and fur. But, you know what doesn’t? The eight floor to ceiling two-story windows. Yes, they are an amazing feature and one that was ultimately a deciding factor to purchase our house. However, it also means every little piece of said dirt, dust and fur glows in all the natural light.
Shortly after moving in, we had to develop a system to keep this area clean. Not only are the four cats an issue, but this area is one of the most trafficked in our house and leads to our garage, front and back exterior access points so it gets dirty quickly.
I think we’ve ultimately developed a system that works well for us now. But first, the cute culprits that are largely the reason for this plan:
Bailey
Bearcat
Henley
Hawkeye
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I mean, they’re pretty much the cutest things ever so it’s worth the extra cleaning (and my sanity) to keep them around.
As I’ve mentioned before, we have a cleaning lady that comes in every other week. But honestly, after a day or two after she has cleaned the hardwoods, we have significant “fur tumbleweeds”, as we call them, all over the floors. I’d like to say these photos were all staged, but unfortunately, this is reality after two days with a spotless floor.
The fur especially loves to gather around the bases of our furniture.
Or sometimes the fur like to random blow down our hallway.
How to Clean Pet Hair from Hardwood Floors
So, what’s our solution? Recently, we’ve been loving these disposable dust cloths (I just attached it to the wet mop kit). It seriously takes me three minutes to swipe through the entire hallway and clean up any dust and fur that have shown up. I do it every few days between the deeper cleanings. So easy and it makes such a difference! I’m not joking that it really is that simple.
The dusting cloths trap the fur and dust immediately and it cleans like a dream. Plus, the surface area is pretty big, so I really don’t have to make that many passes on the floors.
We also recently invested in this cordless vacuum stick and have been really happy with it! It has a built-in, removable handheld vacuum that is really convenient. We use it exclusively on our hardwoods when we need to make a quick pass through to clean up fur. For the price, we’ve been really happy with it!
Even more recently, we invested in this cordless vacuum and it has been a total game changer. We’re actually considering buying a second one for our basement where the cat boxes live. I found this certified Dyson store with huge savings (and in most cases a warranty from the manufacturer). Our vacuum is found certified refurbished here. It’s a great alternative if you don’t want to pay full retail. But these are so powerful that they clean fur quickly from hard to reach places. The suction is pretty unbelievable and makes clean-up a breeze!
Tools for Managing Cat Fur (Before It Hits Your Floors)
We’ve also found that if we can manage the shedding, it also helps with our need to clean the floors as frequently. We’ve found a few pet hair remover tools that work well for us.
Depending on the cat we’re trying to groom, we either use the Furminator (best overall) or these fur-removing gloves (best if your cat is brush averse). Regardless of which we use, we’ll usually take one cat at a time out on our back patio. Since the fur tends to go airborne so quickly, we prefer to groom them outside. By eliminating some of their surface hair on a regular basis, we have far less issues with the daily shedding around our house.
If they do shed on our furniture (which ultimately ends up all over the house), we’ve had great luck with these rollers recently! We were actually pretty shocked by just how well they work. Highly recommended! It sounds like they work just as well for dog hair as they do cat hair.
Do you have any favorite tips for cleaning hardwood floors? And, if you have any other questions about our floors or cleaning processes, leave a comment and I’ll be sure to answer!
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I had Golden Retrievers for over twenty years. The amount of hair they shed can sometimes be mind boggling. During shedding season I sometimes had to use my cordless vac three times a day. But this cordless is a mighty little machine, and I don’t know what I’d do without it! It’s the Hoover Air Cordless with a lithium ion battery. It also converts to a hand vac. It’s by far the best cordless vac I’ve ever owned. It’s more expensive, but for a heavy hair problem, it’s worth the money several times over.
That’s great to know! I’ll have to check it out because our cordless vac is TERRIBLE and dies all the time!
I’ve always called them fur tumbleweeds too! 🙂
Haha! Isn’t that exactly what it looks like?!
I have 3 Roombas to do the job. One on each floor of the house. Got them at Costco for $325.00 each. Last I checked I think they are now $299.00 each. I purchased the first one and it did such an awesome job that after three months I purchased the other two. What you want to look for is that the Roomba box says it is for pets and it is programmable. Very easily programmable I might add. These little devils go from tile to hardwood to carpet with no issue whatsoever. If they bump into something they just turn and go around it and they do not damage the furniture. They come with laser beams so you can either keep them in or out of a room or away from stairs. I only have one cat and my Roomba on the main level (where he spends most of his time) runs four times weekly. The compartment that collects the dirt is ALWAYS totally full of cat fur. I have a friend in California who has three Siamese cat. She is on her second round of Roombas as she wore them out running them daily. I cannot say enough good things about these machines!
We have 2 Yellow Labs who shed like it is their job! We also have dark hardwood floors and a cleaning lady once a week, but she can’t keep up with the “fur snow” that coats our floors. Several years ago I invested in the Dyson Cordless Stick Vac. It is seriously, next to the DVR, the greatest invention ever! I use it every day, the charge lasts about 20 minutes, and you just pop the canister to dump the hair into the trash. While it is expensive, if you use a 20% off coupon from Bed, Bath and Beyond you can save a few bucks and I PROMISE it is completely worth the investment.
I’m curious what your “deep cleaning” routine is for your hardwood floors…products you use and how frequently?
So want to know where you purchased the sign in your hallway? Praise God from whom all blessings flow….. Love it and want one too.
It’s from lindsayletters.com! It’s called the Doxology canvas, but I know she sell’s it in a print as well!
We have walnut hardwood floors and I use a chargeable Swiffer Vac and it works great. The thing I like about it is it doesn’t break the bank to buy one. They are about $38 at Walmart. You use the Swiffer pads that catch all the dust and the vacuum catches every little crumb. I am truly amazed at the power of the vacuum. The only negative is you must clean the filter after every use to keep it from clogging up. It is very lightweight and I just keep it plugged in so it is charged and ready to go.
Love your feline family! So cute… We have 4 of our own so I hear you about the fur – ours collects on the stair steps and we call them dust kittens. They seem to multiply in no time. I’ll have to try these cloths. Thanks for the coupon!
Where did you get the Lord’s Prayer sign that is in your hallway? I really like it!
Thank you! It’s the Doxology canvas from lindsayletters.com!
I need some advice!! I also have four cats and I tried the swifter pads versus sweeping with a broom and I feel like the tumble-weed hairs fly away from the pads. I don’t feel like the fur sticks to the pad so I tend to switch back to sweeping. I have to sweep at least every other day, otherwise there is an accumulation of cat hair on the floor and stairs! 😓😓 Please any advice is appreciated.
When we use the Swiffer, we usually use the wet version now. I’ve also bought a hardwood floor vaccuum since I wrote this post, and it also helps A LOT! I actually use it at least daily because it’s cordless, quick and does a great job. Here is the one we have: https://amzn.to/2zWyKM3. I hope that helps!