A Hairy Mess

You all remember me blabbing about my fuzzies right? Well, in case you missed it, you can read all about them here and here.

We love our fuzzies, they are our current children and we treat them as such. Maggie gets cuddles on the bed every night before lights-out. Pickles gets to choose what can of food she wants every night for dinner (which she does.. and makes sure we know it's that time of day. There is NO forgetting dinner at our house). Maggie gets let out (or in) within seconds of a heard whimper. And all the love either of them could ever need in between their wants. Needless to say, they are SPOILED. Rotten.

John and I have always joked that when we die, we'd like to come back as one of our own pets. They sure live the life (and they know it).

But there is one thing that has us both completely frustrated to no end. Our fuzzies are ridiculously FUZZY! And they share. They share too much. We don't have dust-bunnies in our house. We have dust-buffalo! They tumble across the floor, headed every-which-a-way. No matter how much I vacuum, sweep, brush or mop. The floor will look great for about a day.

Then it's back.

Story of my life.

So when a  product says it will help end the hair battle. Believe me when I say, if a store sells it. We've bought it. For a while (when we lived in our apartment) I was in denial about it and figured it wouldn't be a problem and never did anything to prevent the hair. Big mistake. Before I knew it I was finding fuzzies in my cookies, on my pillow, in my drink, even IN the flour canister. That's when I had HAD it with the fuzzies.
No way could I have people over and not have anything to serve them because I had hair in it. GROSS! So our adventure began.

First we tried lint rollers.

Yes, they work. No, they are not a permanant fix. Perfect for getting fuzzies off your pants, car seat, or shirt before a meeting. Not meant for the ENTIRE HOUSE. We still use them (every morning before work), but not the fix we needed.

Our next attempt. A new vacuum cleaner.
We bought the Bissell Lift Off Vacuum Cleaner. I would have loved a Dyson, but I didn't have that kind of money to put into a vacuum. So I did my research and this was the best choice for the money according to Consumer Reports. And boy and I glad I went with this one.

It has lots of gadgets and gizmo's to get into the tiny-est places. Not just for fur, but for general cleaning too. Aaaand a special fur-grabber for lots of pet hair suckage on furniture. Yes, that's right. I just said suckage on my blog. :) It does wonders for our floors. Both carpet and hardwood... and the car! So for the money (under 150 bucks.. and lower when it's on sale! I got mine at Target on sale for $79!). A definate deal.

It helped A. Lot. Shew.. we're getting there.

But what about our pillows and the bed? We had heard about those new Pledge hair remover thing-y's. So we gave it a shot too. Why not? We've nearly done everything else. And I had a coupon. So we tried it and fell in love with it too.

For those times we don't want to use a ton of lint rollers. It really does work. I prefer to keep one in the car (next to maggies water bottle) for those quick trips around town when the weather's nice. Makes for very quick clean-up. And since they come in a pack of two, I keep the other one in my bedside table drawer for a quick little swipe whenever I see it needs a little attention.

So, Yes, the vacuum cleaner and the fabric sweeper help to clean up the mess... but how can we prevent it?
Special Dog/ cat shampoo? Tried it. Didn't notice a big difference.
Food? Overpriced and it too, not a big difference.
What about those rubber comb-like things? You know the ones They look like a brush on one side and a squeegie on the other. Bought one for 7 bucks and it works better as a chew toy than trying to get ANYTHING off the floor. A total dud. Gah!

Then, one day.. I saw a commercial.
Yes, I am one of THOSE girls. I will get sucked into a info-mercial in a nano-second. John has to have parental controls on the QVC and HSN channels at christmas time (just kidding. kind of.).

Enter the Furminator. If you have an animal with hair, you NEED this. Yes, it's a dog brush. Yes, it's expensive. I'm talking $50 expensive.

My first instinct was Whaaaat?!? For THAT?!? No way. There's got to be a better choice. So I was in denial. Again. Yes, I should have learned the first time. Well let me be the first to tell you, there isn't a better choice. I've done ALL the research for you. This little guy is the WAY to go.

It's magic. Once you use it, you know what I mean. No, it's not a razor, but it sure looks like one. It has TINY combs that get UNDER their topcoat and pulls out all the loose hair from underneath. The BEST thing I love about this guy is it keeps all the hair in one place while you use it! There's a magnet in the head of the brush that keep a static cling on the hair so it doesn't go flying. I swear the first time I used it on Maggie I got 3 Maggie's out of her! A-maz-ing. I was speachless. You can brush your dog daily, weekly or whenever you feel the need. The more you use it, the less they'll shed. I would love to do it daily, but I doubt the fuzzies would like that so much. We tend to be more on a weekly basis at the Early house.
We've had ours now for 3 years and it's still going strong. Maggie has really really thick, dense hair and it works perfectly. Pickles has lighter, less dense but still just as much hair and it works great on her too (when she holds still).

So, in our humble opinion and after LOTS of trial and error, we suggest a GOOD vacuum, a Fabric Sweeper and a Furminator to keep all the Fuzzies (and the rest of the house) looking just as good as you.

What about you other pet lovers out there? Any method that works great for you I've overlooked? I'd love to hear all about it!

*I do hope that SOMEONE found this post to be helpful. We were not compensated in any way for the above mentions. We just like passing along word of great products that help make your life a little less hairy (sorry, pun totally intended). *