We Used A Pumice Stone To Rescue Our Furniture From Dog Hair & Are Now Barking With Delight
We love trying new hacks, including ones that center around cleaning, organizing, and gardening. By definition, a hack is a method of accomplishing a task that is not tried and true but that may make life easier. Our success rate for these unique ideas could probably be best described as mediocre, but when we find one that works, it's a game changer. Many find that removing pet hair from furniture is difficult, so to make this task simpler, we read on Expert Home Tips that a damp pumice stone could prove effective. We hoped this tool might work better for cleaning than it does when exfoliating our feet.
With two cats and one dog in the house, dealing with pet hair is a constant battle. In fact, in an effort to disguise the hair, we even bought brown furniture to match our dog! Ranger is a beautiful dark brindle, but he sheds with the strength of five canines — we're constantly wondering where all that hair comes from. Having coordinating furniture colors helps keep the visible dog hair from driving us crazy, but it's still there and needs to be removed. Even our Dyson vacuum can't seem to handle this job. Could a $3 pumice stone be the answer to our hairy hardships?
Using a pumice stone to remove pet hair
Admittedly, we were skeptical that the cheap pumice stone stashed away in our medicine cabinet would remove pet hair better than our expensive vacuum, but we already had the tool and more than enough pet hair on our furniture to try it out. We wanted to test it on a few different kinds of surfaces, starting with our loveseat. The dark brown chenille material may help camouflage the pet hair, but it isn't the most dog-friendly sofa fabric so it easily becomes covered in strands. We also tried this hair removal process on a tightly-woven damask-type material on some dining room chairs that our cat likes to sleep on.
Additionally, since we have a few stretch slipcovers in our living room, we decided to try the hack on those as well. Of course, they can be removed and tossed in the washing machine, but it would be nice to sometimes just remove excess pet hair and wash them less frequently. While stretch slipcovers look nice and protect the furniture, removing them and putting them back on is like wrestling an uncooperative inanimate object, so we would like to do that as infrequently as possible.
Pumice stone versus pet hair
Each fabric on which we used the pumice stone reacted differently. Of the three types of furniture coverings we tried, our brown loveseat has the most texture. The resistance that chenille-type upholstery offered against the rough surface of the pumice stone made it very effective at collecting hair. Shockingly effective, really. After just a minute or so of using the small stone on the chaise part of the loveseat — Ranger's favorite place to sit – we were amazed (and a little grossed out!). Not only did it pick up lots of pet hair but also what appeared to be crumbs and dander. Who knew that a little piece of rock could pull up so much yucky stuff so quickly? Although the suggestion we read on Expert Home Tips said to dampen the pumice stone before using it, that didn't seem to make a difference. It dried out quickly as we used it, and we just kept going.
We moved on to the woven fabric on the dining room chairs. Again, the pumice stone collected a decent-sized string of cat hair that wasn't even visible until we started scraping it up. Lastly, feeling quite proud of ourselves for finding such an effective method of pet hair removal, we tried the fitted slipcovers but found no luck there. The pumice stone skimmed over the surface as smoothly as it did our feet, so it looks like the wrestling match will continue.
Do we recommend this hack?
While the results were mixed, our overall opinion of using a pumice stone to remove pet hair is that it is the best option for some types of furniture. We aren't sure why it worked well on the tight weave of the damask upholstery and not at all on our slipcovers. However, if you already have a pumice stone at home, it's definitely worth some trial and error on your upholstered furniture to see if you can remove the excess hair that your vacuum is leaving behind.
Aside from not working on all types of fabric, there are a few other drawbacks to using a pumice stone to remove pet hair. It doesn't really get in tight corners as well as a vacuum, and its small size could be an issue. While it works well, it will take some time to remove all the hair from a whole sofa or loveseat. Additionally, we should note that his process will only work on soft surfaces that are fitted, as the grippy texture of the pumice stone will tug blankets and other loose fabrics off their surface. Even considering these limitations, we think using this tool to remove pet hair on some types of upholstered pieces is more than a hack — it's a necessity!