Guides

Short answers to the questions people ask most. For a plan built around your own home, use the planner.

• How to deal with dog hair on the sofaStop cleaning the whole sofa. What to do first depends on whether your dog lies in one spot, all over it, or on leather.
• Cat hair on the sofa, the bed and the cat treeCats pick their own spots. Where the hair builds up tells you where to start: the sofa, the bed, or the cat tree nobody cleans.
• How to stop cat hair getting on your clothesHair gets onto clothes at one or two moments. Find which one, and fix that instead of lint-rolling every outfit.
• Dog hair tumbleweeds on the floorBefore cleaning the whole floor more often, try cleaning one spot more often. What works depends on hard floor, carpet or a rug.
• My dog sheds so much I'm cleaning every dayDaily cleaning is what happens when the supply never stops. Take some hair off the coat first, and shrink what counts as 'daily' to one spot.
• Doodles, poodles and dogs that barely shedCurly-coated dogs hold their loose hair instead of dropping it. The job is brushing to stop mats, not cleaning up hair.
• Living with a dog when someone is allergicAllergy isn't about how much hair you can see. Start with the bedroom, not the vacuum.
• Living with a cat when someone is allergicCat allergen is in saliva and skin, not just hair, and hairless cats carry it too. Start with the bedroom.