TikTok's Floor Sweeping Hack Claims To Be Perfect For Pet Owners. But Does It Live Up To The Hype?
Every homeowner with pets knows that while their furry friends are adorable, the hair or fur those pets leave on the floor isn't so cute. Trying to get rid of the messy fur and hair that pets leave behind can be a nightmare. And, once you clean it off the floor, it can cling to the bottom of the broom, causing yet another inconvenience for the homeowner. But, TikTok offers a solution to help fix this.
On the social media platform, @mrdiy.malaysia posted a video initially showing pet fur all over a floor and how it can get trapped on the broom. Then, the video cut to the hack — outlining the ends of the broom with a strip of tape, letting an inch or two hang lower than the broom's bottom. It went on to show the person sweeping up the fur with the taped broom, and the fur stuck to the tape instead of the broom. Once finished, they threw out the tape along with all the hair.
The video makes it seem like your floor and broom will be free from fur and hair until your pet leaves the next furry mess. It sounds like a pet hair game changer, but does it work as well as the video claims? Curious whether this hack can successfully get rid of pet hair in your home and on your broom, one of our editors, Lauren Gonsalves, tried it. Turns out, using tape on your broom is about as impractical as it sounds.
One of our editors tried the hack
One of our editors, Lauren Gonsalves, noted that she has three German shepherd dogs who constantly shed. Also, her broom is old with synthetic bristles, and she used inexpensive, clear packing tape, which didn't stick to the broom well. "The tape was covered in hair in just a couple of strokes, and the edges of the tape started falling off my broom almost immediately," Gonsalves told us. The editor also shared that she replaced that piece of tape after it fell off, and the second and third strips didn't last long, either. She quickly gave up on the hack.
Gonsalves noted that she sweeps pretty aggressively, which could contribute to why the hack wasn't too practical for her. She also added that a stronger tape might have more durable results. One way she did notice it helped was that using the tape led to fewer flyaway tufts of hair that often get blown around from the sweeping motion.
Her conclusion was, "I can see the hack working as a final sweep after you've finished, to make sure you grab all the little hairs that the broom often misses. But, it's too much of a hassle (for me) to be effective as a regular-use hack. In addition to constantly falling off, I didn't notice the tape having much of any effect on the amount of hair stuck to the end of my broom." Thus, while @mrdiy.malaysia recommends this hack, it may not be as ideal once you try it in real life.