The ultimate guide to cleaning up after your pets

Pets are a great addition to any home, but they bring just as much mess into our lives as they do joy and companionship. We know it can be hard to keep on top of pet hair, odours and other unavoidable messes, and that having an effective cleaning arsenal on hand will make your life a lot easier.

Here are some of our best tips for cleaning up after your four-legged friends, as well as the tools we recommend to get the job done.

Short of adopting a hairless cat, buying a fish or opting for a pet in the reptile family, any animal living in your home is bound to leave its hair lying around. Pet hair gets absolutely everywhere, clings to any surface and can be hard to clean because it seems to keep coming back with a vengeance.

The easiest way to deal with pet hair is through regular vacuuming, but you’ll make your own life easier by ensuring you have the most effective machine for the job. There are a lot of varieties and models to choose from, but the number one thing to look for is a head with enough power to suck up hair from both hard floors and carpets.

The most effective type of head to look for is a power head, followed by a turbo head. The difference between the two is in their power source – turbo heads utilise the suction of the vacuum itself, while power heads include their own motors. These tools are designed to lift more dust and hair from your floors, getting deep down into carpet fibres to catch anything that’s embedded there. 

A mini turbo brush (for barrel vacuums) or mini motorised hand tool (for stick vacuums) are great accessories to keep an eye out for. These smaller motorised tools make it easy to vacuum hair off your furniture and upholstery without trying to manoeuvre a larger vacuum head over the couch cushions. Either choose a vacuum that includes a mini turbo brush or pick up a versatile add-on like the Clean Up Mini Hand Turbo Brush, which can be fitted to most vacuums with a 32mm or 35mm adaptor.

Among our range of barrel vacuums, Godfreys offers a number of machines designed specifically for effective pet hair pickup. That includes both bagged and bagless models to suit your preferences, all of which are equipped with powerful suction and effective filtration to catch tiny hairs and allergens like pet dander.

Check out models like the Sauber Pro Pets Bagged Vacuum, Sauber Pro Pets Bagless Vacuum, Hoover Dog & Cat Turbo Bagless Vacuum or Hoover Eco Pets Turbo Bagless Vacuum.

For quick, easy pickups to collect bundles of hair and prevent mess build-up, it might be more convenient to opt for a cordless stick vacuum. This also gives you great versatility, as most stick vacuums will easily convert into a handheld vacuum for quick cleaning jobs on furniture, benches and tricky spots the regular vacuum can’t reach.

Look at models like the Wertheim Evolution Stick Vacuum, i-Vac Ultra Light Plus Stick Vacuum or Tineco’s PURE ONE range.

If you find yourself needing to quickly clean up messes and want something easy and compact to reach for, consider a handheld vacuum. Their small size and cordless design make them perfect for keeping mess low in between your regular cleans.

Try something like the Sauber Pro Hand Vacuum or Hoover Pets Plus Hand Vacuum.

For a clean so easy you don’t even have to do it yourself, it’s worth looking into robot vacuums. These little wonder cleaners are particularly helpful for people with busy schedules, as you can just pre-set cleaning times and trust that they’ll do their jobs. By scheduling daily cleans, you can ensure your floors are being vacuumed (and with some models mopped) once a day, stopping any hair or mess from building up.

For just vacuuming check out the Hoover Ranger Robot Vacuum, or for vacuuming and mopping check out the Ecovacs DEEBOT range including the DEEBOT OZMO U2 Robot Vacuum or DEEBOT OZMO T8 AIVI Robot Vacuum.

Whether it’s animal urine, vomit or muddy footprints, accidents happen. Pets and kids are alike in their tendency to make wet, fragrant and not-so-pleasant messes that they can’t clean up themselves. There are a few ways to deal with these kinds of accidents, depending on the surface you’re working with.

If potty training your pup is going awry, there are worse places for it to happen than on hard floors. You can always bring out the mop and bucket, but there are easier, faster and less strenuous ways to clean with the right tools.

A steam mop like the Bissel Select™ Steam Mop is great for cleaning dirty footprints off the tiles, and it also works to sanitise surfaces by breaking down bacteria and germs. Those sanitising powers will help eliminate animal odours without the use of any chemicals that could make your furry family members sick.

Another option for tiles, marble or sealed timber floors is a hard floor cleaner. Models like the Tineco FLOOR ONE S3 Hard Floor Cleaner are capable of dealing with wet and dry mess at the same time, making short work of hair, urine, mud and any other pet messes. A small amount of a safe, plant-based solution in the tank of your hard floor cleaner will deal with any kind of spill without you having to switch between different machines.

Accidents on the carpet or furniture may seem a little more stressful, but they don’t have to be difficult to clean.

A carpet shampooer is a great way to get stains and spills out of carpet fibres to leave your floors looking as good as new. Load a cleaner like the Hoover SMARTWASH+ Automatic Carpet Washer or one of Bissell’s CleanView® shampooers up with the Bissell Pet Stain & Odour Formula shampoo solution and give your carpets a deep clean.

If you’re just dealing with the occasional mess on carpets or upholstery, try something like the Bissell Little Green® Portable Spot & Stain Carpet Cleaner. It’s compact and easy to move around, so you can pull it out at a moment’s notice for a quick yet effective spot clean.

Alternatively, stock up on a stain remover designed to target pet mess. The Enzyme Wizard Urine Stain & Odour Spray is specifically formulated to break down urine, getting rid of stubborn marks and smells while also deterring pets from returning to that spot to make another mess. It contains no harmful or hazardous ingredients so it’s safe to use around both humans and animals, and can be used on any surface, including carpets, upholstery and hard floors.