How To Remove Pet Hair And Odor From Curtains (Ultimate Guide 2023)

How To Remove Pet Hair And Odor From Curtains. Having a pet in your family can bring you many joys, as you enjoy playing with your fur babies, teaching them tricks, or just feeling their love and devotion. But having a pet comes with its challenges, and one of those challenges is the messes they make.

When a cat or dog sits on the windowsill at your home or scampers through the curtains in search of a stray sunbeam, they can leave clumps of pet hair or even dirt stuck to your curtains.

How To Remove Pet Hair And Odor From Curtains

Why Not Just Wash the Curtains?

Believe it or not, it’s not as easy as just placing your fur-covered curtains in your washing machine. Pet hair clings to the fabrics – and the situation escalates when you try to remove it by putting the material in water. The offending pet hair will gather water and form clumps of wet fur that are even more resistant to removal. Plus, the pet hair will stick to the inside of the washer and dryer drums.

Instead of placing the curtains or other linens directly into the washing machine, you can take a clean, dry “dollar store” sponge and rub it over the places where your cat or dog has left their fur. The fur will then stick to the sponge, and you can throw the sponge away.

Other Ways To Remove Pet Hair

Here’s another way to remove pet hair from curtains or linens. Once you have removed the pet’s coat as much as possible, you should step outdoors and give the curtains a good shake. After this, you can place them in a clothes dryer.

Place a few dryer sheets into the dryer with the curtains. Turn on the dryer for ten minutes; at either low or no heat. Telling the items in the dryer will loosen the pet hair, and the dryer sheets should attract it. You can then throw those furry dryer sheets away. Don’t forget to check your dryer’s lint trap to be sure no pet hair ends up inside.

Some housekeepers swear by lint-removing rolls or just placing a large piece of scotch tape around your hand and letting it pull the thread off. One more method of removing the fur before placing it in the washer is to rub the fabric with a damp glove gently. This will usually allow the skin to stick to the glove.

If you get pet fur stuck inside your washer or dryer, remove it using a damp glove before your next laundry load. This will prevent leftover pet fur from sticking to your next laundry load.

Should You Use a Dry Cleaner?

You may wonder if it’s preferable or easier to dry your curtains rather than machine wash them after your pets have decorated them with hair. Although a dry cleaner is best for curtains that are marked “dry clean only,” if you try to clean other types of curtains or linens at the dry cleaners, it will not be worth your time or money.

Dry cleaning may remove some of the pet hair from fabrics, but it may only be able to remove some. Some dry cleaners will not accept materials with pet hair on them because the pet hair can cause damage to the dry cleaners’ machines.

What About Removing Pet Odors?

As you can see, removing pet hair from your curtains or other linens is a challenge – but it’s not impossible. But what if you’re your laundry problem isn’t just the pet’s hair – but it also includes your pet’s odor?

The odor pets leave when they nap on our curtains or linens, marking them with their scent, or if our pets mistake the curtains for a litter box, can be challenging to remove. Just as housekeepers have developed ways to remove pet hair from curtains, they have also eliminated pet odors.

Removing Pet Odor

One method that may not automatically come to mind is to use vodka to remove the pet odor. Even an inexpensive vodka can be placed into a spray bottle and applied to the parts of curtains dampened by urine. Once the curtains dry, they will generally be odor-free.

Another liquid you can use via a spray bottle to remove pet odor is white vinegar. Although the vinegar smell is also unpleasant, that smell is much easier to remove.

Another way to eliminate pet urine odor is with baking soda. Place the curtains in a paper bag and put some baking soda into the bag. Close the bag. Keep the curtains in the bag for a few hours while shaking them from time to time. After a few hours, take the curtains out of the bag. Rinse them if you need to, but they should be odor-free. You can discard the bag and the leftover baking soda.

Another method that will often remove odors from your curtains – and infuse them with a more pleasant aroma – is to hang them outside to be dried by the sun.

Will Dry Cleaners Help Pet Urine Odor?

Cat urine has a pungent odor that lasts a long time, and it is not easy to remove with standard cleaning methods. However, dry cleaners can usually clear those odors from your curtains. Be sure to ask the store whether they can remove the odors – because some are not always able to do so.

Be aware, however, that even if the dry cleaners can odor from your curtains, perchloroethylene (the chemical used in dry cleaning) often can cause urine stains.

How To Remove Pet Hair And Odor From Curtains – Conclusion

Most dry cleaners are trained to remove odors – even pet odors – from all types of fabrics, so you may opt to get your curtains cleaned this way if your cat or dog has an “accident” on your curtains. Talk to the dry cleaner before you leave the curtains with them to ensure you agree about the services you need.