When my husband and I built our home five years ago we decided it was a good idea to put hardwood floors on the first floor. We did this mainly because of how much easier they are to keep clean. But, no one told me that when you have three long-haired pets you'll also have hair tumble weeds the size of gerbils rolling around the floor. I find them everywhere - under the couch, in the corners of the room, in the closets - everywhere! Last week I was lying on the living room floor with my daughter and I happened to glance under the couch and I became convinced a family of gerbils had nested under there. Even though I moved the couch and swept just a few days prior, the gerbil family found its way back.

What's even worse is how the fur balls up on the bottom of the bar stools in the kitchen as well as the dining room chairs. If I lift up the chairs and turn them over it looks like the felt pads on the bottom have turned into black and white caterpillars. Then I start to think ... if all this hair is downstairs, what does my carpet really look like upstairs? I'm a bona fide vacuum freak. You have to be when you have two Himalayan cats and a Border collie. Knowing this my husband (who was tired of going through a vacuum cleaner a year) went out and invested in the Dyson designed especially for pet hair. (It's the purple one, in case you're interested). It's seriously the best vacuum cleaner ever made, in my opinion. The only thing I don't like about it is that you can see all the hair it picks up in that clear tube that holds all the dirt. When it's full it sort of looks like a skunk got sucked in there and managed to wrap itself around a cylinder. As if I didn't know I had a lot of hair in my house before, boy that just drives it right on home.

Because we live in a house of hair we also have stock in lint brushes and rollers. If you open any junk drawer in our house you can bet you'll find a lint roller. You'll also find one in my bedroom closet and in my coat closet downstairs as well. We most likely keep the lint roller companies in business.