… is rubber gloves. Just regular old Playtex rubber gloves that you have 17 pairs of stuffed under the sink anyway.
Maybe everyone else knew this, but it’s a revelation to me. I’ve usually used the Pledge fur remover (which really is a godsend) or the 3M fur fighter thingy (which is nowhere near as good, and which I’ll now never spend a dime on again), but I’m currently out of both, and my living room furniture looked like it was made of cat hair. My vacuum is useless on it, so for lack of other options I grabbed a rubber glove and started rubbing.
It worked SO MUCH BETTER than the 3M thingy! And it’s a rubber glove ferpetessake, so you just rinse it off and throw it back under the sink. I could still use a Pledge thing to get the last little hairs, but honestly, I’m amazed I never thought of this before.
It works better if you put on the gloves, wash your hands with soap, let them dry and then use them. I don’t have the scientific explanation for this DianaG, but give it a try. One hundred bazillion Dalmatian hairs attest to it.
If I send my Dalmatian hairs to your cat hairs, they’ll chase them outta the house.
My personal preference is for cloth gardening gloves with the rubberized textured fingers. The fabric lets your hands breathe, so you don’t got so sweaty doing a big job.
I used to think the furniture color was just fading from use and age. Then I tried rubber gloves as a fur removal device. Zounds! I’ve collected a furball the size of our smallest cat just from my La-Z-Boy alone. Now the rest of the house demands defurring.
Screw you so very much!
By the way, this also works great on bed comforters (even though the can will swiftly jump right back on the bed right after, or while, you clean). Just keep the comforter on the bed and rub away.
Dammit. Now I have another chore to do on a regular basis. Unless I can convince my husband that this would be an excellent Fidget. He must Fidget while he watches TV, to the point where he’ll tap a pen or wiggle his feet if he doesn’t have anything else to do. Generally, the cats take care of his Fidget needs in other ways…the female generally will settle down on his right thigh and graciously allow him to pet her and scratch her chin, one male will holler to be petted on the other side, and the other male will bring a toy so Bill can throw it and the cat can Fetch it.
Just a note, DianaG - I think they’re ‘latex’ gloves - unless you keep your old rubber bras under the sink…
And Duckster, to be fair, heir to the hair is generally the air. No doubt it’s all making its way to the outer planets, and a grand NASA discovery will be made. Not life as we know it, but a damnable hooky fibre, organic in nature and rather willful.
Back in the day when when I was doing temp work, I did fire restoration for a couple days. One of the magic chemicals we had in the happy van was a spray that dissolved pet hair. It also had a serious narcotic effect if you inhaled the fumes. For some reason, I can’t remember what it was called. . .
