Removing Pet Hair from Furniture

Cute Dog Laying on Living Room Carpet.

A Variety of Options for Removing Pet Hair from Furniture.

How to Get Rid of Pet Hair off Your Furniture

I love my dog, but she pretty much runs the place, including stretching herself out on the sofa – whether we’re home or not. Even though she has short hair and doesn’t shed much, she still gets hair all over our couch.

Removing pet hair from furniture can be a nuisance, especially when you’re trying to get the furniture clean before company comes over. Who wants to see their guests get up from the couch and see their backside covered in FeeFee or Fido’s hair? Now that’s embarrassing, for them and myself.

There are a variety of products on the market to get rid of pet hair from your furniture, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to getting rid of pet hair. We’ll go over some of them below. First the most obvious:

Vacuuming the Furniture

Every time I vacuum floors, I also vacuum the furniture. After vacuuming it’s easy enough to put the upholstery tool on and give your furniture a good cleaning. Vacuum the cushions, under the cushions, back, sides and arms. Then use the crevice tool to get in the crevices and nooks. While you have the crevice tool on you can vacuum under the couch as well. I would suggest (if possible) to move it every so often and vacuum.

Using a Sponge

I have also used a dry or damp household sponge to lift pet hair from pillows and cushions on my couch. This method actually works quite well, just rinse the hair from the sponge when necessary, there is no need to have an over wet sponge, give it a good wringing out and damp is all you need. Make sure to store it somewhere where it won’t get used when cleaning the counters.

Boars Hair Clothes Brush

I have a boar’s hair brush I use to remove pet hair from my clothing. It’s not ridged pointy plastic; it’s soft and doesn’t damage fabric. It also does a fairly decent job on your furniture as well.

Pet Hair Magnet

This looks just like a squeegee (except the pet hair magnet has a double row on the edge), and works in the same way. When I used the hair magnet to remove pet hair from my ottoman, which my dog also loves to lay on, the hair bunched into piles. I was able to easily grab it and put it in the garbage, no muss, no fuss.

This can also work to remove pet hair from a comforter and clothing items. To use it on fabrics that are a bit slack, you may need someone to help hold it taut or if you’re using it to remove pet hair from jeans, try it while wearing the jeans.

Magic Lint Brush

I used this on my microfiber couch cushions; it works just like it would if you were removing lint from your pants. It pulled the hair off the cushions no problem. When you’re done, reverse swipe it to remove the pet hair. You can also use your hand to brush the hair off and into the garbage it goes.

This is not a sticky lint brush, which I liked because I can use it a long time. This brush is made of plastic and could break if you’re not careful when using the swivel.

Gonzo Pet Hair Lifter

To start the gonzo sponge had a very strong rubbery smell when I first opened it. That being said the smell did dissipate after a few days. My dog has short hair and (for me) it didn’t seem to get as much hair as easily as the other products I tried.

I gave the gonzo pet hair lifter to a friend to try, she has several long hair pets, and she really liked it.  Her experience was the opposite of mine; when she used it, it picked up all the hair. Maybe it’s more for heavy duty jobs or for pets that shed more than my pup?

I felt there were a few downsides to the Gonzo Pet Hair Lifter.

  1. I thought it took more time than some of the other things I’ve tried, so this would not be the tool for a quick fix.
  2. I felt it moved the hair around more than picking up the hair.
  3. If it should get dirty while you’re removing pet hair and feel the need to rinse it out – you will need to wait until it’s dry before using again.

To sum it up, it didn’t work the best for me, my friend however; it worked great for her so this might be something you want to give a try?

Using Damp Rubber Gloves

There are quite a few sites on the internet claiming that a damp rubber glove works great at picking up pet hair and I have to admit it did do a fairly good job – in the beginning. The problem is the rubber dries pretty quickly and the pet hair I did get up starting falling off the glove back onto the furniture.

If you want the truth, my bare hands worked better than the rubber glove method. I don’t know this for certain but it might be because there is a slight texture to skin where the surface of a rubber gloves is a bit more smooth?

Using a Lint Roller to Remove Pet Hair

If after trying one of the above and you still have a little pet hair remaining on the furniture, you can always get out the lint roller to pick up some last remaining bits of pet hair. If you don’t have a lint roller and have a roll of duck tape lying around – wrap a couple pieces around your hand (inside out) and go over the furniture.

I hope you find one of our suggestions useful to you.