About four in ten of the homes we clean have a dog or a cat, and the question comes up at almost every first visit. The honest answer is that pets do not need a different kind of cleaning, they need a different rhythm. Fur, dander and paw traffic build up in a few predictable places, and those places need attention more often than the rest of the house.

The short version

For one medium-shedding dog or cat, a biweekly professional clean plus a ten-minute daily floor pass keeps most homes comfortable. Two or more animals, or one heavy shedder, and weekly starts to make sense, at least for the rooms they live in.

Where fur actually collects

• Along baseboards and under low furniture, where air currents push it

• Stair edges and the first step, which take the most paw traffic

• Upholstery arms and the back of the sofa, if they are allowed up

• Around food and water bowls, where fur sticks to splashes

A weekly vacuum of just those four zones makes a bigger difference than a monthly whole-house one. Our teams hit them first on every visit to a pet home.

Bathrooms and litter

Litter tracks further than most owners think. We find it in hallway rugs and under beds two rooms away. A mat on both sides of the box and a weekly rug shake cut it down sharply. On visits, we vacuum the litter room before anything else so nothing gets carried through the house.

Products around animals

Our default caddy is plant-based, which is why we can use it around bowls and beds without rinsing. The exception is stronger disinfectant for accident spots, which we only use with your okay and never near food areas.

What to tell your team

Names help, hiding spots help more. Tell us if a pet is nervous around the vacuum and we will run it in a different room first. Exterior doors stay closed while we work, always.