Keeping Pet Hair Out of Your Cooking

With a cat roaming around, I have to make an extra effort to ensure pet hair doesn’t find its way into the food I’m cooking. I don’t always win.

Just last night, I found a baked-in cat hair gracing my pizza. On my mission to reduce occurrences like that, I follow a few pet hair-reducing tips for the kitchen:

• Prior to cooking, use a lint brush or sticky brush designed to remove pet hair. Run it over your shirt to remove any pet hair which may fall off while you prepare food.

• Of course, wash your hands. And, wash your dog! The bath will help reduce shedding.

• Brush your pet often. I like using the FurBuster on my cat.

• Declare the kitchen off-limits to pets.

• Clean all counters and food prep areas before starting to cook. Cats don’t always understand or obey “off-limits.”

• Vacuum or sweep often to remove pet hair that’s lying around on the floor or other surfaces. I like the new Dyson DC31 Animal. It’s a handheld vac especially designed to remove pet hair. It even has a dusting attachment.

• Keep your pet otherwise occupied while you’re cooking. Try something like I’ve pictured above: put a bunch of wadded up catalog pages in a shoebox for your cat. That has to be more interesting than your cooking, unless you’re preparing fish!

How do you keep pet hair out of the kitchen?

(Image via Peggy Rowland)