GET RID OF FLUFFY-Okay, so you don’t actually have to get rid of Fluffy, but some people love the discovery of pet hair in a house (OH LOOK HONEY, BY THE COLOR OF THE HAIR THEY MUST HAVE A GOLDEN RETRIEVER!), but most people DON’T.

Getting rid of the pet “signs” has become sort of a specialty for me in the past 10 years.  You see, I enjoying owning and showing dogs in dog shows but I’m also a little OCD in my cleaning.  So my husband and I own 4 dogs and we have two cats.  Luckily 3 of our 4 dogs don’t shed hardly at all, but the one that does, the Sheltie, sheds A LOT! The cats also shed profusely.

For any non-pet person or even some pet people, when they enter a home with pets they automatically start making assumptions and looking at everything with scrutiny.  Did the pet damage the home in any way, did the pet have accidents in the house, do they clean up after their pets?  There needs to be hardly any signs of there ever being a pet in this home.  So find that friend of yours that isn’t fond of pets and have them do a walkthrough of your home “post” cleaning! Tell them they HAVE to be honest with you.

So let’s start with our hard surface flooring.  We have Pergo and linoleum.  These floors make the cleanup super easy for house showings.  Before the showing and the Open House we vacuum the floor and then run over it a second time with a Swiffer or Swiffer Duster to get in the corners.  Then once a week we’d mop the floor with a diluted vinegar and water solution.  We use ½ cup vinegar in a gallon of water.  This keeps the floors looking their best.

For our basement our entire floor is carpet.  Luckily the basement carpeting is like new so we didn’t have to do much.  For this showing we vacuumed the carpet and used an edging tool to make sure any trace of Sheltie and the cats was gone.  Now the cats like to sit at the top of the stairs in our basement.  The cats are excellent about using the litterbox, but still the top of the stairs had a general “cat” odor.  To eliminate this I purchased Arm and Hammer carpet refresher.  I chose a more neutral scent and sprinkled at the top of the stairs for an hour then vacuumed up.  It’s a perfumed baking soda.   This completely eliminated the odor and left behind a light scent that was perfect for when potential buyers entered the basement.  Not overwhelming, not horribly floral.

Next we needed to make sure the room we keep the litterbox in was fresh smelling.  We took our two litterboxes down to one, and removed all soft items from the floor.  From there we bleached the floor with a diluted water and bleach mixture and put a high powered dryer in the room to completely dry the concrete floor.  We then made sure the litterbox was cleaned every day instead of every other day and we purchased carbon filters for the top of the litterbox.  If you have a little time before the house showings begin I suggest trying out a non-scented litter.  Often time people have a negative reaction to the scented litter not just the cats.  The other option is to remove the litterbox with each showing or put it in a tied trash bag with each showing.

For the carpets upstairs in our bedrooms, we used a carpet scrubber to do a second round on the carpets after they were vacuumed.  Though the carpets were in mint shape, the carpet scrubber gave them an extra cleaning and helped to “fluff” them giving them a new look.

Next we took time to clean all of the walls.  Dogs just love to drink water and shake their heads sending little rivulets of spittle all over the place.  We first used a bucket of water with a squirt of dish detergent to wipe down all of the walls.  Then we bought a box of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and went to town scrubbing all of the scuffs, marks and remaining spit off the walls.  We had originally thought we would paint the walls again, but after the “Magic Eraser” did its magic, there wasn’t a need!

For your dog and cat beds, they need to be washed routinely (every 3 days) and removed from the house for each showing.  The same goes with dog and cat toys.  These cloth items can easily sabotage your cleaning efforts with their unpleasant odor.  Wash often and even better, pack them up and remove them from the house.  Your pet will make it for a few weeks with a few select hard toys like a Nylabone and try a smaller easy to wash bed.  You can even use old towels in their crates for them to cuddle with.  It can be washed with each showing.  Also, if you have hard surfaced floors (Pergo, laminate, tile, wood, etc) and have a throw rug remove them.  They hold hair and odor and will do more harm than good.

Finally, change your air filters in your furnace before you start showing your home then do it once a month.  Look for filters that help to remove odor and dander.  Also take your pets to be groomed.  This will help so less hair is shed in your house and your pets will have less odor to waft in the air.  With each showing have a plan to get the pets contained or out of the house. Barking dogs or cats that are begging for attention are annoying for potential buyers.  They distract people so think of possibly having a friend take them for showings or take them for a day to Doggie Daycare for the day.  For the cats, try putting them in a large crate with a blanket over it and a sign that says they are there for their safety.  Your cats will appreciate the privacy and your buyers will appreciate being able to focus!

Miss yesterday’s post?  Check out: HOW TO GET RID OF CLUTTER to Get and Offer on Your Home in 48 Hours!

Or Maybe you’d like to see where it all started: Ten MUST DO’S TO Get an Offer on Your Home in 48 hours!