How to Make Your Home Smell Better as a Dog Owner
You may love your furry friend more than life itself, but there’s one potential drawback of dog ownership that’s just about impossible to avoid. Having a dog – and having a home that smells fresh and clean – are two things that can often seem completely incompatible with one another. That’s especially likely to be the case if your dog happens to be a larger dog breed – there’s a good chance that your home sometimes smells a little ripe.
In this article, we’re going to present some advice that can help. Believe it or not, it really is possible to own a dog and to have a home that smells nice. It just takes a bit of extra work – but once you’ve done the work, your home will continue to smell fresh for a long time as long as you do a couple of things to keep the unpleasant dog odor from returning. Here’s how to do it!
Stop Smoking
If you’re a smoker, the first thing that you need to do if you want your home to smell better is quit. You’re already well aware of the fact that cigarette smoke smells bad, of course – but you’re probably also wondering what this has to do with owning a dog. The reason is because the stale smoke odor that collects in your home when you smoke is magnified if you’re a pet owner. Your dog sheds hair constantly throughout the day – a fact that probably pops up to the forefront of your mind every time you vacuum the floor. Smoke, meanwhile, adheres to every surface in your home from the floors to the ceilings. If your floor is full of dog hair, that gives the smoke more surfaces on which to adhere – and with all of that additional surface area collecting the foul-smelling smoke molecules, the odor will only be magnified.
There’s a good chance that you’ve already tried to quit – maybe even more than once – if you smoke. Perhaps you’ve even given up on the thought of ever becoming free from tobacco. If that’s the case, you’ve probably never tried vaping. Vaping replaces tobacco smoke with a nicotine-infused vapor that leaves no lingering odor and won’t stink up your home like dog odors do. Vaping also means that your dog won’t have to inhale second-hand smoke anymore. The best part is that synthetic nicotine e-juice is now available, which means that you can vape without using a single ingredient derived from tobacco.
Give Your Home a Deep Cleaning
As we mentioned above, one of the biggest reasons why dog ownership can cause your home to acquire some unpleasant odors is because your dog leaves hair and dander everywhere. You can alleviate that issue by vacuuming your home regularly, but the truth is that there’s probably still a good amount of dog hair in the out-of-reach areas that you don’t usually vacuum. Those areas might include under your beds and in the tight spaces behind couches and other furniture. To keep your home smelling fresh, you’ll want to vacuum those areas at least once a month. It’s also a good idea to remove and vacuum the cushions of your couches and chairs.
The Dyson Ball Animal Vacuum is the most effective vacuum you can get to remove dog hair, dander, and dust mites. We’ve been using ours since we got our Boxer and it quickly removes dog hair and odors because of the amazing HEPA filter. I can tell you after personally buying and using the Dyson Ball Animal that it is the best vacuum for removing pet hair from your home!
Once a year, you should give your home a deeper cleaning to remove deeply embedded dog smells from your carpets and furniture. You can do that by spreading baking soda liberally and leaving it there for 24 hours to absorb the dog odors. Vacuum the baking soda up and discard it. You should find that your home smells dramatically better.
Replace Your Dog’s Bed
If your dog sleeps on the same bed every day, there’s a good chance that the bed has become a bit stinky from the constant use. This is an area in which you can handle the problem in one of two ways. If your dog isn’t completely attached to his or her bed, your best option is to replace it. If you’re nervous that your dog might miss its favorite sleeping spot, you can always put the old bed in the garage for a few days while your dog tries out the new bed. If that doesn’t work out, you can bring the old bed back.
If throwing your dog’s bed away simply isn’t an option, you’ll have to do what you can to deodorize it – and since it’s the surface on which your dog sleeps every day, you’ll have to do the job without using harsh chemicals. Try the baking soda trick outlined above. Follow up by leaving the bed in direct sunlight for a day. The sun’s radiation will help to oxidize and neutralize the bed’s dog odors.
Buy a Good Air Purifier
After you’ve done your best to remove dog odors from your home, maintenance is the final step – and the most effective way to do that is by buying a good air purifier like the NuWave OxyPure Smart Air Purifier. Unfortunately, you’ll have to spend a bit of money in this area if you want to do the job right.
A few years ago, ionizers were all the rage because they were supposed to do the work of an expensive air purifier at a much lower price. Unfortunately, though, it turned out that ionizers were woefully inefficient for several reasons – and a few ionizers even emit potentially harmful levels of ozone.
If you want to control the dog odor in your home efficiently and safely, you’ll need to buy an air purifier that uses the classic fan-and-filter design. Ideally, the air purifier should have an activated charcoal stage for absorbing airborne odors, and it should also have a HEPA stage for trapping fine pet dander and other allergens. Finally, a good air purifier will usually have a coarse pre-filter that removes dust from the air and helps to extend the life of the more expensive HEPA filter.
If you’re vigilant about vacuuming regularly, owning a good air purifier like the NuWave Oxypure can go a long way toward keeping your home smelling fresh no matter how rambunctious your dog may be.