Spring Cleaning! How to Keep Your Home Healthy For Your Pets
Don’t look now, but spring is here! And you know what that means: Time for spring cleaning!
Hopefully, you’re doing your best to keep your home safe, clean, and healthy for everyone who lives there — including your pets. But if you’ve maybe let some stuff pile up in the corner or forgotten to run the vacuum as often as you’d like, it can be a good time of the year to whip your home into shape. Plus, if you have pets, you know how much dog or cat hair can accumulate…and it’s never a bad idea to try and clean that up.
So, in the spirit of spring cleaning, here are some relatively easy ways you can clean and spruce up, and make sure you're creating the safest and most cozy home environment possible for your pets and family.
Chemicals and cleaning products
Before you start spraying and wiping, take a look at the cleaning products you’re using to spruce up. Are they pet-safe? If you’re not sure, you might want to play it safe and use something else — you can even make your own pet-safe cleaning solutions at home, too.
As the Humane Society writes: “The ingredients that make disinfectants effective make them toxic for companion animals: alcohol, bleach, hydrogen peroxide, chemical compounds that contain the word “phenol,” etc.”
So, keep that in mind. But aside from using chemicals and cleaners around the house, you’ll want to make sure that you’re storing them safely, too. Kids can get into chemicals and cleaners, which is obviously scary and dangerous, but so can your pets. If possible put cleaning products in cupboards, or somewhere else where curious hands (or paws) can’t reach them.
Pet hair…Everywhere
The pet hair battle is…a losing one. Not all pets shed like crazy, but even if they don’t, your home likely has a good amount of pet hair in it. Giving your home a good vacuuming is a must, and you should probably try to vacuum regularly. You can even try one of those fancy robot vacuums, too, if you really dislike lugging out the Dirt Devil.
The same goes for mopping. Even if you have hardwood or tile flooring, pet hair can and will accumulate. If you want to try and control the issue at the source, get your pet on a regular grooming schedule — it may not completely rid you of pet hair problems, but it can help.
Clean and sanitize everything
What was the last time you gave your pets’ toys a good scrubbing? Probably never. But it can be a good idea to clean and sanitize what you can. That includes toys, blankets, beds, collars, and more. Even their food bowls — it’s easy to forget about those — can and should be cleaned. Again, though, make sure you’re using pet-safe cleaners and disinfectants.
Mitigate other hazards
This can also be a good time to look out for and neutralize any potential messes that are waiting to happen. Is there a dangling cord that’s just waiting for your cat to rip out of the wall? Or a power cord hanging from a lamp that your dog is bound to get tangled in? See if there’s a way to tidy up and make your home as hazard-free as possible.
You don’t want your dog to catch a cord, send a lamp flying on top of them, and have them get hurt, after all. Plus, you’ll probably destroy your lamp.
All told, you might spend a few hours cleaning your house, but you, your family, and your pets will all be better for it. Plus, you may have prevented some disastrous messes from occurring before they even get started! It’s always good to try and work some cleaning into your schedule, too, even if you hate doing it.
But just remember: Your pets deserve a clean and safe home just as much as you do. So, do it for them!
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