Cats don’t just spread their hair around their home, on furniture and textiles when they change their coat: Depending on the breed, house tigers can shed their hair all year round. Some pet owners may not be particularly bothered by this, but many find the small tufts extremely annoying. Especially if their clothes or bedding are covered in cat hair. The good news, however, is that there are numerous tips on how to get the hairy problem under control. We tell you the best tricks.
Regular grooming is the key to success so that your house tiger doesn’t spread its hair in tufts all over the apartment. Because even if cats clean themselves several times a day, they cannot get rid of their mountains of hair. To help your pet with grooming, you can use a cat brush or comb – preferably every day. Depending on whether your house tiger has short or long, thin or dense fur, there are different care products (also for the undercoat). A soft brush is particularly suitable for the classic short-haired cat, which is widespread in Europe. It usually has thin, soft wire bristles. And don’t worry: most animals perceive manual grooming as a wellness treatment. If your cat refuses to use a brush or comb, you can use a special rubber glove with nubs to gently stroke the fur.
Since cat hair adheres particularly well to upholstered furniture, it is correspondingly more difficult to remove. Technical gadgets with the necessary power can be very helpful here, such as a special pet hair attachment for the vacuum cleaner. This variant from Navaris should be suitable for all models with a vacuum cleaner tube with a diameter of 32 to 35 millimeters, for example. A smaller version (28 – 37 mm) is also available. Alternatively, you can also get a cordless hand vacuum cleaner that has been specially developed for pet hair. Or you can opt for a completely new vacuum cleaner that can also remove cat hair.
If you don’t want to upgrade technically, there is still the good old lint roller – although the new models can do much more and are also sustainable (because they can be reused). They are just as suitable for upholstered furniture as they are for textiles, i.e. clothing or bed linen. This animal hair remover, for example, even cleans itself: there is a special function for this that you have to activate by hand. The classic adhesive roll is even cheaper to buy, but it also produces more waste. After you have removed the cat hair, the fully glued surfaces must be replaced with new rolls (chargeable) again and again.
The lint roller can also be used for a few cat hairs on clothing. However, if your clothes are really covered in tufts, for example because your house cat lay on them, you can use a simple trick – if you have a tumble dryer: Before you clean your clothes in the washing machine, put them in the dryer for a few minutes and let it run on the coldest level that the device has. The cat hair is blown out of the textiles (including towels and bed linen) through the air. The clothes can then be cleaned as normal. After washing, however, it makes less sense to put the clothes in the dryer, as the cat hair gets stuck in the fibers and is difficult to remove.
Important: After going into the dryer, you should free the fluff filter from the cat hair.
If you don’t have a dryer, there is another trick you can use to remove cat hair from your clothes: with the so-called miracle brush. This is a brush with special bristles that are curved. This should easily remove animal hair, but also dirt from textiles. According to the manufacturer, the gadget is not only suitable for clothing, but also for upholstered furniture, carpets and cat baskets.
There is also a practical gadget for upholstered furniture such as the sofa: the pet hair remover. He has hardened rubber teeth, with the help of which cat hair should be removed more easily. The special thing about it is that each of the four edges can be used differently – this means that the device has four cleaning modes, which in combination should ensure a clean result. The ergonomic design also ensures a comfortable grip in the hands.
Last but not least, an ordinary rubber cleaning glove can also help to get rid of cat hair on clothes and furniture. Moisten this first before stroking or circling the fabrics with your smooth hand. Due to the electrostatic attraction and the rough surface, the tufts can be easily collected and removed. It is best to pull the textiles taut beforehand, then it works even better.
And one more tip at the end: It may sound very banal, but in fact the cat hair flying around can already be reduced if you vacuum the apartment regularly – ideally even several times a week when the fur is changing.
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