Acknowledging the chaos of everyday life, comedian Roseanne Barr famously quipped, “Excuse the mess, but we live here.” Somehow that mess seems to increase when pets come into the picture. Whether feathered or furry, our pets also bring with their love and affection allergens, odors, and stains, adding a whole new level to household cleanup.
The trick to keeping your house looking and smelling its best is frequent cleaning with the right tools. A new puppy may learn the ropes after a few months of house training, but adult dogs and cats can have accidents at any age. Over time, urine salts become alkaline and may stain or change the colour of your carpet fibers. Even worse, alkaline salts can draw humidity from the air, activating bacteria and increasing odors, particularly on damp days. Have you ever wondered why pet smells seem to be magnified in basement level rooms?
To preserve the life of your furnishings, try to deal with pet accidents before they dry out. Use your nose to locate urine, checking the backs of carpets and area rugs for stains. Treat recent accidents with a home steamer as soon as possible to break down odors and prevent setting. Treat older stains with an enzymatic pet wash or vinegar solution, followed by steam cleaning to loosen and eliminate embedded odors and bacteria. A portable or canister steam cleaning model that works on carpets and hard surfaces will keep your space feeling fresh and odor free when used frequently.
In addition to bad smells, pet fur and dander can linger long after your trusted friend has left the building. Dander is made up of dead skin cells and dried proteins, and can trigger allergies in people with challenged immune systems. Cats and dogs are known for producing dander, but other animals like birds, rabbits, hamsters, and guinea pigs also produce this potent allergen. With its small particulate size and ragged edges, dander most often becomes airborne and sticks to anything in its path. Carpets are dander magnets, along with soft furnishings like cushions, couches, and drapes.
Thankfully, there are simple and healthful ways to remove pet dander from your home. Steam cleaning floors, carpets, and even walls greatly reduces dander build-up. A steam cleaner with an upholstery attachment will also help eliminate pet dander from your non-washable furnishings. For those with serious pet allergies, adding a good quality air filter to your daily cleaning regimen will help reduce the airborne dander before it settles.
An added benefit of steam cleaning is that it’s 100 percent pure and won’t harm your pets. Diane MacEachern is the author of Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World. She cites research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the non-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG) that shows many household chemicals were significantly higher in pets than is usual for people.
“Our pets spend all of their time crawling around the floor or laying on the rugs and furniture, exposing them every day to any chemicals we use. We actually had two cats, plus a dog. I didn’t want any of them endangered,” she said. “I had light grey wall-to-wall carpeting, which was just as clean after steam cleaning as it was when cleaned using more toxic chemicals.”
If selling your house or simply doing a routine clean, steam cleaning can get underneath the grime and dust that goes along with pet ownership. It’s also an excellent way to remove stains and freshen your home naturally, without added chemicals, making cleaning up after your pet simple and fast. From a basic steam mop to a more complete steam cleaning system, steam deals with pet odors and residues—lessening the mess of everyday life.
At Reliable, we do what we love, and we take pride in doing it right. Quality, functionality, design and customer service play an equally important part in delivering what’s right for you. From irons to steam cleaners to sewing machines, you can count on us to be right there with you. That’s the Reliable Way.
