Best Laundry Tips for Pet Owners: A Practical Guide

Quick Answer

Best laundry tips for pet owners: shake out or tumble-dry before washing, wash pet items separately at 60°C, use a pet hair catcher in the drum, and clean your washing machine monthly with an enzyme cleaner. The most impactful change most pet owners can make is cleaning the machine itself — pet hair and residue inside the drum re-deposits onto every subsequent load.

Further reading: Which? — washing machine temperature guide · Which? — energy-efficient washing machines

The Pet Laundry Problem in Brief

Pets shed constantly. Dogs and cats leave hair on every surface they contact — sofas, beds, clothes, and crucially, inside your washing machine. Hair that enters the drum doesn't fully flush out. It accumulates on the drum walls and seals, and deposits onto the next load.

The result: clothes that come out of the wash covered in more hair than they went in with. A machine that smells of pet no matter what you wash. Clothes that seem clean but have a faint odour. These are all symptoms of the same underlying problem — a contaminated machine.

Before You Wash: Prep Makes the Difference

Shake items out first

Take blankets, dog beds, and towels outside and shake firmly. This takes 30 seconds and removes the majority of loose surface hair before it enters the machine. Hair that's already loose is much easier to remove this way than after it's been wetted and driven into the fabric by the wash cycle.

Pre-dry in the tumble dryer

10 minutes on the air setting (no heat) before washing is highly effective. The tumbling action loosens embedded hair, and the lint trap catches it. This step alone significantly reduces the amount of pet hair in the drum during the main wash.

Use a lint roller on problem items

For velvet, fleece, or thick cotton items, lint rolling before washing is more effective than trying to remove wet, flattened hair after. Target areas where pets most commonly rest — backs of clothing, upholstery, blankets.

During the Wash

Wash pet items separately

Dog beds, blankets, and drying towels should have their own dedicated cycle, not be mixed with regular laundry. This prevents hair and residue from the heavily contaminated items spreading to your clothes.

Temperature: 60°C where possible

Warmer water loosens hair from fibres more effectively and kills odour-causing bacteria that a 30°C wash leaves behind. Check care labels — most pet bedding can be washed at 60°C. Delicate items (wool, certain synthetics) may require lower temperatures.

Add a pet hair catcher

Reusable pet hair catchers — typically a spiky silicone ball or mesh bag — create turbulence in the drum that helps lift hair from fabrics and trap it, rather than letting it redistribute onto other items. Most effective in front-loading machines.

The Most Overlooked Step: Machine Maintenance

Most laundry problems for pet owners trace back to the machine itself, not the washing technique. Pet hair, dander, and skin oils accumulate inside the drum, seal, and drain paths with every wash. A machine running on a contaminated drum defeats everything else you do.

Monthly drum cleaning with an enzyme-based cleaner is the single most effective change most pet-owning households can make. Enzymes specifically target the proteins in pet dander and the fatty acids in skin oils — the residue that standard descalers and bleach cleaners can't remove.

After the Wash

• Check the drum and rubber seal for remaining hair — wipe out with a dry cloth
• Leave the door open for at least an hour after the last wash of the day
• Tumble-dry items for 10 minutes after washing if they still have hair — the lint trap catches what the wash didn't
• Check and clean the pump filter every 2–3 months — it clogs faster with pet hair than standard lint

Related Reading

• How to Remove Pet Hair from Clothes
• How to Get Rid of Dog Smell
• How to Wash Dog Beds

Frequently Asked Questions

What detergent is best for washing clothes with pet hair?

Liquid detergent over powder — powder can leave residue in the drum folds and combine with pet hair to create a cement-like build-up. For actual hair removal, detergent matters less than temperature, drum cleaning, and pre-wash prep.

Does pet hair damage washing machines?

Over time, yes. Hair accumulates in the pump filter (causing slow draining and pump blockages), the drum perforations (reducing water flow), and internal drain paths. Regular filter cleaning and monthly drum maintenance prevent the build-up that leads to breakdowns.

Why do my clothes smell of dog even after washing?

Almost always caused by residue inside the machine drum — not the wash cycle itself. The machine is transferring the odour it has accumulated back onto clean clothes. A drum clean cycle with an enzyme cleaner removes the source. See our full guide on getting rid of dog smell from laundry.

How do I stop pet hair ending up on everything in the drum?

Shake or brush the garment outside before it goes in, run a cool rinse cycle alone first to loosen hair, then run the normal wash. Add an extra spin at the end to fling remaining hair into the drainage, and clean the filter afterwards. Doing this routinely keeps hair out of the heating element.

Are tumble dryers useful for removing pet hair?

Yes — a 10-minute tumble on a no-heat or low-heat setting before washing shakes a lot of loose hair off into the lint trap. Clean the trap afterwards and discard the hair. Follow with the normal wash cycle. Skipping this step forces the washing machine to do all the hair-collection work.