Ikea lint roller vs 3M lint roller compared

Ikea Lint Roller
Pros

+ Cheap RM4.90 for 1 lint roll and plastic roller, RM9.90 for 4 lint roll refills (without plastic roller)
+ Waxed paper sheets are recyclable (I think)

Cons
- Lint roll sheets are thin waxed paper, so when if you don't peel off current sheet carefully, you may end up peeling the current sheet and the next 3 layers!


3M Lint Roller
Pros
+ Thick plastic sheets, so you're less likely to accidentally peel off several sheets at once

Cons
- Expensive. Approx RM20 for 1 lint roll
- Sheets are not recyclable


Conclusion
I prefer the Ikea lint roller over 3M because it's much cheaper (RM2.50 per Ikea lint roll vs RM20 per 3M lint roll). In the past, I have favoured 3M because it seemed to pick up more fur off cloths than Ikea's lint roller. But having just finished using an Ikea lint roll, and switched back to 3M, I found that I get through just as many lint roll sheets for both brands. So I've decided to save money, and learn how to carefully peel off used lint sheets ;-)

Ceramic tile cleaner for cats who eat off the floors

Ceramic tile cleaner
Mix 1/4 cup (60ml) white vinegar into a gallon (3.8 litres) of warm water. Apply with sponge.
Recipe from Dr Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, p142.

My cats are messy eaters. When they eat, they tend to displace their food off their bowls, and lick the food off the floor.

This habit worries me because when my cats lick food off the floor, they are also ingesting some of the no rinse commercial tile cleaner that I use to mop the floor. The commercial tile cleaner has a long list of chemicals, which I don't understand but I've read that it may be toxic if ingested.

So when I discovered this recipe, I started using it to clean the kitchen floors (where I feed my cats) instead of a commercial tile cleaner. I find the sponge a little warm to hold, so I usually grip the sponge using a pair metal tongs. My husband says that the floor smells a bit like the vinegar in fish and chips but don't worry, this smell disappears once floor dries. Now I can be confident that my cats won't get sick from licking the floor.

Using gloves to remove cat hair from sofa

Removing cat hair from the sofa is the most arduous task of my vacuum cleaning activities. It could easily take me 30mins to remove 1 week's worth of cat hair from the sofa using a vacuum with rotating brush.

Occasionally, I'm too lazy to lug the vacuum cleaner, and resort to the expensive sticky 3M roller for pet hair (RM20 for refill, RM30 sticky roll with roller). I find that the 3M roller picks up more cat hair compared to the RM10 roller from Ikea.

I wondered whether there are more efficient ways to remove pet hair and found suggestions such as using packing tape, brush with bristles, rubber brush, and rubber gloves.

I tried the brush with bristles and gloves suggestions. Between the two, I prefer gloves because it seems less abrasive than a brush with bristles. It feels more natural to me to to just run my hands over the sofa to collect the fur. As you can see from the pic, the gloves do a good job collecting fur. On another sofa covered with a new rug, the gloves even picked up lint from the rug!

I'd still supplement the work with vacuuming to pick up fine dust. But at least I won't have to spend so much time vacuuming the sofa!