September 2009 Weddings
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Pets & Couches
OK, so we have a microfiber couch and loveseat up in our formal living room, and whenever we aren't home, Loki makes them his bed. Ugh.
To my pet owners out there - what are your suggestions for the following:
*hair removal
*odor removal
*stain removal
I love my couches, I just hate sitting on them. Because of the mircorfiber, brushing it off just doesn't cut it, nor does vacuuming. As for the smell, Febreeze only does so much, and for stains, though they're brown couches, Loki has a tendency to lick his paws thus leaving wet marks behind, and nothing is working on those either...
I mean, they aren't extremely expensive couches, but if I can get a little bit longer of a life out of them, I would love it...
Re: Pets & Couches
We also have microfiber couches so hope this helps!
Hair removal: We use the pledge fabric sweeper. It is kind of a pain to use because you have to go back and forth so many times to pick up the hair, but well worth the results. I do this about once a week.
Odor removal: Glade tough odor solutions. I also use the matching carpet deodorizer. I LOVE this stuff. I think it smells pretty good, nothing like febreeze.
Stain removal: So far we have been pretty lucky that Layla has not stained our couches *crosses fingers* so I don't have any tips for this one.
I roll mine with a sticky roller to get the hair off. Tedious, yes, but effective, and cheap.
Odor and Stain: Rent a steam cleaner. Clean it. Let it dry for a day or two. Scotchguard the sh!t out of it. Ours has 3M fabric protectant on it (we paid extra when we bought it because we have an extra drooly pup). All we use to clean now is warm, wet washcloths. If she ever bleeds or anything, we use OxyClean For Fabrics (it is in a blue bottle- and another good pretreat option if you're going to steam them).
After that, I'd advise a couch cover. You can always take it off for company (which we mean to do but sometimes doesn't happen) and you preserve your fabric.
Stand up for something you believe in.
I've actually found lint brushes to be the best thing to use with microfiber. Granted, the brushes work best on cat hair and don't pick up nearly as much dog hair because dog hair is more coarse. For that, I either have to use a sticky tape roller for quick clean-ups, or I just vacuum the couch with the upholstery tool on the Dyson. Our dog knows he's not supposed to be on the newer couch, so he only gets on there occasionally (enough for me to have to pick his hair off it once a week though), but it's still a PITA.
Our old couch (cotton twill) was covered in dog hair. Hair was embedded and I couldn't get it all out. It had dog smell too and no Febreeze or Bath and Body Works fabric refresher or anything would get it all the way out so we finally had to have an upholstery cleaning service come and clean the whole damn couch. Smelled much better but it didn't get the stains all the way out. I think dogs have a lot of oil in their fur that just tends to make stains after a while.
So, long story short...easiest solution would be to get a furniture cover for your couch and let Loki lay on that. Then when company's over (or you want to lay/sit on your couch) just pull the cover off. That's our plan in case Cooper decides to try to lay on the new couch we plan to get in our hearth room soon. Or, if Loki's trainable, get him a good dog bed. We bought one from Orvis.com for Cooper and while he won't sleep in it all the time, it definitely cut down on the amount of time he spends on the couches.
My dog is allowed everywhere, but we have an oddly shaped couch that I couldn't find a cover for- so we're using heavy weight woven picnic blankets I got on clearance at Pier 1.
Stand up for something you believe in.
:Blog:
We have brown microfiber couches as well, and our dogs are all over them all the time. They only really shed twice a year, so hair removal isn't that bad. I just use the upholstery tool on the Dyson...for extra stubborn hairs, a lint brush works for me.
As for stains: We use resolve pet cleaner. I use 2 washclothes (one damp to blot up stain, the other sprayed with the Resolve) and just blot, blot, blot away. Once it dries, I use a bristle hair brush to fluff the microfiber back up a bit so it doens't look discolored. Sounds odd, but it works.
ETA: forgot about odor; I knew there was a 3rd part, but I forgot what it was. The Febreeze Pet Odor Eliminator works for us. It's the dark blue bottle with the green spray lid. I've heard the enzyme cleaners are the best, but I haven't had any personal experience with them.