What if one little ride with your pet ruined your car?
Hopefully, it’s not so extreme you need to get your car insurance involved, but that’s what it can feel like when your sweet ride is filled with dog hair or cat hair. You may want to clean it up, but it can be very difficult to remove animal fur from an automobile.
Does all this sound familiar? Are you someone who needs to know how to remove reminders of your furry friend from your vehicle? Keep reading to discover our top tips for pet hair removal.
1. Use Science: Static Electricity and a Balloon
Are your car seats and carpets filled with unwanted fur? One method that may help you clean everything up involves the creative use of static electricity and a balloon.
Chances are you’ve never thought of balloons as a pet hair remover before, but it may be the best way for owners to clean automobile interiors. Just blow up a few small balloons, tie them off, and rub them on the interior to build up the static electricity. Once you bring the balloon closer to the hair shed by your furry friend, that fur will begin to stick to the balloon.
While this technique works well for very loose hair, it may not perfectly clean fuzz that’s really stuck to your car’s interior. Nevertheless, you may want to start with this technique to loosen things up before you move on to the next idea.
2. Use Traditional Tools: Vacuum Cleaner and Pet Brush
Are you a cat owner or dog owner sick of all the fur in your car’s upholstery? In that case, it’s worth investing in a good wire brush. This brush, along with a good vacuum cleaner, can help you get stubborn fur out of the vehicle. As a bonus, the following technique also works well for cleaning furniture inside your home, meaning you can finally get the fuzz off your pet’s favorite couch.
To get started, you need to take a spray bottle and spray a fine mist of water on the affected areas. Next, use the brush to corral the fur into a central location. From there, use a vacuum cleaner to finish up.
This method is a great idea because it helps you get almost any amount of hair out of your vehicle. Of course, if you’ve never thought your furbaby had that much hair, it can be a pretty shocking sight once you go to vacuum everything up!
3. Use a Lint or Hair Roller
Once you start dealing with a lot of hair, you’ll wish there was an easy method for cleaning all of it. Well, if you’re looking for a handy tool that was made to clean small areas, the best solutions are to use a lint roller or hair roller.
Lint rollers are a good idea to start with because you may already have some around the house (a lint brush works just fine too). However, to get the best results for the fuzz in your car upholstery, you should buy a pet hair roller. These rollers are perfect for getting unwanted animal fur off everything from leather seats to your favorite clothes. Plus, unlike lint rollers, hair rollers won’t force you to constantly replace the sticky tape.
Long story short? Before your next road trip or ride to the dog park with your fuzzy friend, you may want to throw the roller into your glove box! And if more of your drives are taking you to the vet, you should definitely consider a pet health discount plan.
4. Invest in Seat Covers
The best way to clean loose animal hair from your seats is to keep the fuzz from getting there in the first place. If you’re serious about keeping fuzz off the surface of your seats, you need to buy seat covers.
In fact, seat covers are arguably the best solution if your animal is going on frequent rides with you. In addition to keeping fur from the actual seats, these covers are easy to remove and clean. Not only that, there are even specialized covers made with animal owners in mind.
Speaking of investments, don’t just focus on your seats! Part of the reason you are doing this is to keep your beloved companion with you wherever you go. Since your pet is so important, consider keeping your furry family member safe and investing in insurance. As for what pet insurance is, it’s a health plan that can protect your furbaby if something unexpected happens like an injury or illness.
5. Use Fabric Softener and Paper Towels
Your fabric softener probably doesn’t make too many trips outside of your laundry room. However, two tablespoons of fluid fabric softener mixed with water in a spray bottle make for a fine way to fix your animal hair problem.
To begin, just spray your water/fabric softener mixture onto some paper towels. Next, all you have to do is wipe the affected area with a towel.
While this solution is simple, it’s important to make sure the softener won’t stain your seat before you start using it. Also, you may still have excess you need to vacuum up after the fabric softener dries. On the bright side, your automobile will smell better than ever the next time you drive.
6. Prevent Pet Hair from Getting in the Car
All these tips can help remove unwanted animal hair from your car, but you’re always better off preventing that fuzz from getting in your vehicle in the first place. You can achieve better prevention with a few easy steps.
The best way to do this is to frequently groom your pets. This reduces how much fur they shed in your vehicle. To save money, work on improving your grooming skills so you don’t have to take your furbaby to a professional groomer.
As we outlined above, you should definitely get seat covers if your pet is frequently riding in your vehicle. Through frequent grooming and added cover protection, you can keep your seats safe.
Cover Your Pet and Car with the Right Online Insurance
Now you know how to remove animal hair, but do you know who can help you protect both your pet and your vehicle with the right insurance?
Here at Freeway Insurance, we are happy to offer your pet and your car the protection they need. There are great reasons to get pet insurance and low-cost auto insurance, so get started with a competitive quote online. Alternatively, if you’d like to work through an agent, come visit us at a local office near you or give us a call at (800) 777-5620 for a quote.
