You love your pets. They’re part of your family. You’d do anything to keep them safe, happy, and healthy, right? But if you’re cleaning your home with certain harsh cleansers, you could inadvertently be putting them in danger. Practicing pet-friendly cleaning can protect your beloved fur babies from serious long-term health issues, possibly even death.
Why Pet-friendly Cleaning Is Important
Pets are a bit like small children. They can get into things before you even notice they’re in danger. They lick and put things in their mouths they probably shouldn’t. And they even eat things that are bad for them.
If a cleaning product looks like food or smells yummy, pets will be inclined to lick or eat it. And they are, of course, in contact with floors, carpets, and furniture with parts of their bodies that they lick. Because your goal is to keep your pets safe, you need to look at the issue from their perspective. Start thinking like a pet. And like a pet parent.
Floors and Harsh Chemicals
You’ve probably heard the rumors that Swiffer Wet Jet is unsafe for pets. Thankfully, those fears were rendered false, but still, it got a lot of us thinking: What constitutes pet-friendly cleaning when it comes to our floors and carpet? After all, dogs and cats lie around on the floor and spend most of their time there.
When it comes to cleaning floors, whether they are tile, wood, or carpet, stay away from floor cleaners with harsh chemicals—including ammonia, chlorine, glycol ethers, and even formaldehyde. Phenol and isopropyl alcohol are two other ingredients to avoid. And Dogster.com specifically calls out Pine Sol and Mr. Clean as floor-cleaning products that are harmful to your four-legged family members.
Since most Americans do tend to clean with those name brands, where does that leave us? How about soap and water? Or just water? It works just fine for our bodies, so why can’t we use it on our floors as well? At Carnation Home Cleaning, we use de-ionized, neutral water specifically because it doesn’t have those harsh chemicals.
Clean Doesn’t Smell
Are you drawn to the smell of a clean house? That’s because we’ve been trained that clean has an odor. Whether we feel that lemon scent associated with so many cleaning products means clean, or a bleach smell connotes sanitization, we are drawn to smelly cleaners.
Generally speaking, any cleaner that smells is not safe for pet-friendly cleaning. The toxins they include have been shown to cause cancer, anemia, and liver and kidney damage in pets. In addition, they can even trigger pet allergies. So if Fido is sneezing, you may want to look to those smelly cleaners.
What about using refresher sprays on your pet’s bed? According to Snopes, the rumor that Febreeze is unsafe for pets is unfounded. However, if allergies are a factor, strong-smelling sprays can cause an issue for anyone, whether they have two legs or four.
Put Away the Cleaners
As a smart, thoughtful pet parent, you’ll know to keep cleaning products behind closed doors. Remember that curiosity is a trait most pets share. While you shouldn’t have to worry about the kitty opening the door under the sink to get to the cleaners, it’s best to be smart. After using any kind of cleaning product, store it out of sight. Empty mop buckets and put away the mop itself so that your fur babies aren’t tempted to get into the dirty water.
Basically, if it’s not safe for small babies, it’s not safe for your pets. Take similar precautions to keep potentially dangerous chemicals and cleaning agents out of their reach.
Ensure Pet-friendly Cleaning with Carnation!
Being a parent, whether to biped or quadruped children, is a lot of work. There’s no reason to stress about which cleaners you should and shouldn’t be using. Leave the pet-friendly cleaning to Carnation Home Cleaning. Since 1991, we’ve been cleaning the homes and offices of families and businesses in the East Valley. And we always use the safest cleaning approaches because we truly believe clean doesn’t smell.
Contact us today to get your free estimate and learn more about how we can keep your whole family—pets included—safe.
