House Cleaning with Pets – Things to Consider

House Cleaning with Pets – Things to Consider

When it comes to cleaning, there are many questions that arise – how to properly wash a hardwood floor, which temperature is the best for laundry, and whether you can find a pet-friendly cleaning service, to name a few. Yes, it is possible to find a home cleaning service when you have pets in your home! With your furry friends, you may find that you need a pet-friendly home cleaning service more than ever.

 

Why is a Home Cleaning Service Important When You Have Pets?

Dog Sitting Next to Bucket of Cleaning SuppliesThe American Veterinary Medical Association states that up to 68% of American households have pets. While having a pet is lovely for many reasons, house cleaning with pets is a big job. You want to bring in the specialists, but you worry about the cleaning products they may use – will they have pet-safe cleaning products? Time to call pet-friendly home cleaning professionals!

5 Reasons to Call in the Cleaning Pros:

  1. Allergens
  2. Guests
  3. Time
  4. Professional knowledge
  5. Cleaner home

1. Improve the air quality in your home – When you hire a professional home cleaning service, you have committed to improving the air quality in your home. Aside from the usual dust and allergens found in the house, pets add their fur and dander to the mix. Bringing in a cleaning service that uses pet-safe cleaning products will help make your indoor air healthier, assisting anyone in the home with allergies or asthma while also making sure your pets are kept safe. Even if you only call in professionals to do a deep cleaning seasonally, it will make a huge difference in the health of your home.

Clean Living Room with Dog2. Entertainment-ready home – Home cleaning with pets can be a chore. It’s wonderful to have a pet, but anyone that has had one knows that accidents and illnesses can happen at any time. You can’t speed clean when guests suddenly arrive and be ready for whatever Fido or Fifi dish up. When you have a professional home cleaning service with pet-safe cleaning products, your home will be in guest-ready condition, so you are free to handle any sudden messes that may pop up, compliments of your favorite furry friend.

3. Bonding time – Having a cleaning service gives you the gift of time and peace of mind, especially when you know that they are using pet-safe cleaning products. You can utilize these additional hours by taking your furred companion for a long walk or having an extra-special play session. Whatever you choose, you’ll enjoy time together rather than doing your house cleaning chores.

4. Cleaning expertise – With all of your earnest intent, you will not be able to match the quality results of the pet-friendly cleaning professionals who utilize pet-safe cleaning products. They are called professionals because they know all the tricks of the trade and can give your house the sparkle and shine that you long for.

Why spend all the money to get pet-safe cleaning products when they have them on hand, along with the institutional knowledge of how best to use them? You could inadvertently damage your furniture, whereas they know how to make it shine.

Cat Sits on Bed While Woman Works in the Background5. Best results – Everyone wants to have a sanitary and hygienic home where they can feel safe and germ-free. Pets, as adorable as they are, bring in an entirely new network of germs and the need for pet-safe cleaning products. Kitty bring you an offering? It’s sweet, but you’d rather she left it outside.

Hiring a cleaning service that has expertise in pet-safe cleaning products will give you the clean you long for, removing bacteria, mildew, and any other hidden dirt that may have ridden in on your pet’s paws. A thorough deep clean, followed by regularly scheduled cleaning, will guarantee that your home remains a safe, healthy haven for you and your family.

Great Reasons Why You Should Look for Pet-Friendly Cleaning Services

If you have a pet and are considering home cleaning services, look for one that positions itself as one that uses pet-safe cleaning products. There are several reasons why this is important.

Alleviating worries – When you hire a pet-friendly cleaning service, you know that they are aware of the fact that you have a pet. Whether you leave your pet in a specific section of the house or prefer them to be in their special crate, you know that you have partnered with a pet-savvy cleaning service that considers their clients’ special family members.

Professional Cleaner Dusting FloorExperienced professionals – Cleaning services that utilize pet-safe cleaning products have knowledgeable professionals with high comfort levels with animals, so you can feel relaxed having them around your pets. They know how to clean around animals and have experience at home cleaning with pets.

Pet-safe products – Not all cleaning products are safe for use around pets, so by hiring a pet-friendly cleaning company, you can be assured that anything used will not harm your animals. The home cleaning company will have done the research for you and brought in the best pet-safe cleaning products for your home, your health, and the health of your pets.

Your pet’s enjoyment – Most pets love to meet new people! Your service for home cleaning with pets can do double duty by being a new friendly face for your furry friend. When you set up regularly scheduled cleaning services, your pet-friendly cleaning professionals will become trusted companions that your pets can’t wait to greet.

What to Do With Your Pet When You Have a Home Cleaning Service

Dog Sleeps in Crate BedThere are a couple of considerations to remember when a home cleaning service comes to your house and you have pets. If you know that your pet doesn’t like strangers and is likely to be upset by the disruption, you may want to keep them in an isolated spot in the house or remove them during the cleaning.

However, if they like greeting people, allow them to behave as usual. If you are concerned, you may want to arrange to have the pet-friendly cleaning service come by to meet them beforehand, so there will be familiarity when they arrive for the official cleaning.

Another point is if you leave the house, be sure to leave a cell phone number in case of an emergency with your pet so that the home cleaning service can contact you immediately. You may also want to leave your veterinarian’s contact information in case they can’t reach you.

To have the best pet-friendly cleaning experience, it’s a good idea to secure your pet in a guest room or an area that is not being cleaned, so your home cleaning service can easily clean without the added challenge of working around an animal. You will always want to make sure your pet has access to water. While the pet-friendly cleaning service is not responsible for your pet, you can typically discuss having them let your pet back out into the rest of the house once they are done.

What to Do if Your Pet is Scared of the Vacuum?

Cat Watches Vacuum CleanerVacuums are a necessary part of cleaning when you have pets, thanks to shedding. While your pet may be fine with meeting your home cleaning team, once the vacuum is turned on, they turn into a quivering mass, and the truce is off. How can you help teach them that the pet-friendly cleaning team is friendly? There are strategies to help teach your pet that vacuums are not the enemy, but it may take some time and effort prior to your next scheduled visit from the home cleaning team.

The goal is to desensitize your pet to both the visual and the sound of the vacuum. Allow your pet to see the vacuum cleaner while it is off, and reward them with treats for being in the same room. Leave it out for several days, moving it around the house, but never where your pet sleeps or eats. Once they are comfortable with that, turn it on in a room away from your pet (if possible, have someone else in the room with them, giving them treats while you do this).

Once they can handle that, go on to the serious home cleaning with pets around. Try turning it on in the room where they are but move it away from the pet while throwing treats to them if they stay in the same room. After you have established this step, they should be able to stay calm when it is used, but still, give them treats for keeping their cool!

How Do You Keep Your Home Clean With Pets?

In between your home cleaning services, it is helpful to know how to keep up with your pet cleaning chores. There are some basic pet-safe cleaning product tips that will help you keep the chaos under control.

  • Brushing
  • Stocking up
  • Doormats

Pet Owner Brushes CatRegular grooming – Pets shed. Regular grooming will help you in the long run by reducing your pet’s shedding. Not only that, but many dogs adore the feeling of being brushed so it will give you and your pup some special bonding time.

If the weather outside is nice, move your pet cleaning outside so that all the dander and fur will float away for some squirrels and birds to utilize for their nests! This will also help to prevent it from adding to anyone’s allergies inside your home. Pro tip- start brushing your pets when they are young so they associate this activity with positive feelings.

Keep basic pet-safe cleaning product on hand – Having a Swiffer, broom, or dry mop on hand can help you dramatically cut down the time you have to do home cleaning with pets. Using it for five minutes daily will keep your house (and your pet’s hair) from getting out of control and unmanageable. Store it near your high-traffic areas and see what a difference it makes.

Door maintenance – Keep a towel and a container of wipes by your door for when your pup comes in from outside for easy pet cleaning. Wipe their paws as they come in, and your time cleaning pet paw prints off your floor will be drastically reduced! This is also an excellent way to help acclimate your pet to having their nails trimmed since you will be handling their paws often.

What About Cleaning the Pet Toys?

Dog Chews on ToyWhen asked about pet toys, Martha Stewart said that they often harbor dirt and bacteria. You don’t want your clean home sullied because you forgot to clean the toys – but how do you do it properly?

Most pet toys can be cleaned using hot water and soap. Ensure you never use Lysol spray or any other detergent or spray that utilizes harsh chemicals. These are unsafe cleaning supplies because pets carry their toys in their mouth, and the chemicals could poison them.

Always make sure to follow any cleaning instructions that are on the toy’s packaging. Before returning the toys to your furry friend, ensure they are thoroughly rinsed and dry. Different toys will have separate required cleaning methods.

The most commonly cleaned items for pets are:

  • Rubber or plastic
  • Rope
  • Plush toys 

Cleaning Rubber and Plastic Pet Toys

If you have soft plastic toys that your pets use for dental health or chewing, do not put them in the dishwasher. This could cause them to melt. To clean them, hand wash them and then dry them carefully to remove all dirt and germs.

Can You Clean Pull and Rope Dog Toys?

For a rope toy, wet it and then place it in a microwave for at least one minute. This will be enough time to kill all germs, yeast, and mold that might have accrued on the toy. Another pet-safe cleaning option is to place the toys in the washing machine and wash them on a hot cycle without any detergent.

Cleaning Your Pet’s Favorite Stuffed Animals

Dog Lays on Stuffed AnimalHow often have we seen pets carrying their little stuffies around? Stuffed animals and pets’ favorite blankets can go right into the washing machine. You may want to place them in a mesh lingerie or garment bag or a pillowcase to protect them from damage during the spin cycle. Once washed, you can place them in the dryer on the low setting.

Toys should be checked weekly or, at the very least, every two weeks to ensure there’s no overt damage that could hurt your pet pal. Remove or replace the toy to keep your pet safe if stuffing is coming out or if it’s missing pieces. For your pet’s favorite toys that get the most love, clean them on an accelerated cleaning schedule.

When you are ready to hire a pet-friendly cleaning service, contact Pure House Cleaning. For over eight years, Pure House Cleaning has been the leading provider of eco-friendly cleaning in the Seattle, Bellevue, and Kirkland areas. Whether you are looking for a one-time cleaning or want home cleaning services regularly, Pure House Cleaning can find the right pet-friendly cleaning specialist for you. The cleaners will love your pets and make sure to leave your home both sparkling and safe.