71°
Americans own an astonishing number of pets. There are some 77.5 million owned dogs in the USA and over 93 million owned cats, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association 2009-2010 National Pet Owners Survey. Here are some more numbers 39 percent of U.S. households own at least one dog and 33 percent of U.S. households own one cat, though most cat households have two furry friends!
If your pets are anything like mine not sure where we fit into those statistics as we have one dog and two cats -- their favorite way to occupy their days seems to be shedding fur. All you have to do is turn your back on a spanking clean floor and, bingo!, the fur is back, thick as before.
Brushing your pets to remove loose fur doesnt seem to help the problem in any way at all. In fact, I think it makes it worse, because by the time youve wrangled the cat to the ground youre lucky if you can get a couple of brush strokes in before little kitty turns into a hissing bundle of rage, fangs and claws readied for assault. The fur you loosened is now flying around in the air, settling on the furniture as well as on the floor. And the dogs not much better!
So how can you keep your floors clean without hauling out the vacuum cleaner on a daily basis or spending a fortune on Swiffer dry cloths? Ill tell you my absolutely favorite household tool is the old-fashioned, lowly carpet sweeper! Ill bet many of you have never even heard of the carpet sweeper, but its been around for ages and ages, since way before the vacuum cleaner was invented.
The carpet sweeper is basically a double brush and dust-pan with wheels and a handle. You brush it over your floors and carpets (no, it doesnt scratch the floors) and the two brushes pick up the fur and dust and flick them into a pan. When youve finished, you empty the pan into the trash, and voila clean floors!Whats even better in this day and age of carbon footprint awareness, is that the carpet sweeper is powered by nothing more than you! No electricity needed and no nasty vacuum smells emitted. And heres another bonus. If you tuck in your abs and keep your back straight while youre pushing your sweeper over the carpets, you can even get yourself a mini-workout!
Cant get much greener than that!
Click here to follow Daily Voice Norwalk and receive free news updates.
