I test cleaning tips for a living, and this Velcro laundry hack is my favorite way to remove pet hair from clothes in seconds

If your home is full of furry friends, then you will know the pain of trying to get rid of pet hair, especially from your clothing and household linens.

While you can spend hours working around your home with lint rollers, I prefer to remove it all in the laundry with – hear me out – a Velcro hair roller.

Having picked up the trick from an Instagram reel, I now swear by this laundry hack to save time plucking lint and hair from the laundry without it ending up stuck in the washing machine seal.

Velcro-roller laundry hack

This simple laundry hack is as simple as it gets. You place a Velcro hair roller, available in packs of four from Walmart, in your washing machine and run the laundry cycle as normal to remove pet hair from fabric.

The original laundry tip was posted by content creator Kiki.Border.Collie on Instagram, and shows them satisfyingly pulling all the collected mats of hair from the Velcro.

As someone who is tired of pulling hair out of the filter and door seal when cleaning a washing machine, I had to give this cleaning shortcut a go.

While I do not have any pets myself, my partner and I both have fine hair that falls out at an alarming rate – there is also a neighborhood cat that loves to rub itself up our legs whenever we are in the backyard.

So, I threw one of my Velcro rollers in the drum before loading up my washer and running a normal laundry cycle with my non-toxic Ecover Non-Bio Laundry Detergent, available at Amazon.

After washing, I was amazed at how much hair had been picked up by the roller – all strands that would have otherwise risked clogging up my appliance (making this a great washing machine maintenance tip to extend its lifespan, too).

Despite the rough texture of the Velcro, I did not notice any damage to my clothing after this laundry hack to make the chore easier, however, you need to use some common sense to avoid making this hack a bad laundry habit that can ruin your items.

As the original creator added, ‘Silk, lace, athletic wear, and other delicate fabrics should be washed separately! Don’t test these life hacks on those materials. Cotton, bed linens, jeans, t-shirts, etc. are safe – go ahead and wash them like that.’

For those delicate items that are at risk of damage from Velcro, Elizabeth Shields, operations manager at Super Cleaning Service Louisville, suggests removing hair before washing as normal.

‘It might sound like overkill, but it will save you from the disappointment of leftover pet hair after the wash,' Elizabeth explains, 'Pre-removing lint, pet hair, and all those tiny fuzzies means they don’t have a chance to cling to other clothes.’

We like this reusable, washable gel lint roller from Walmart, as it can be used over and over again without creating waste. It also helps to save you some money in the long run, too.

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FAQs

Does fabric softener help with pet hair on clothes?

Fabric softener, when used in the correct amounts, can help reduce pet hair on clothing as they are formulated to reduce static, making it more difficult for loose pet hair to stick to fabrics.

This can be done either in the washing machine by adding the fabric softener to the correct section in the detergent drawer as normal, or by mixing one part fabric softener to three parts water in a spray bottle and spritzing over upholstery.
Be aware, however, that fabric softener can make items more flammable.

Need to strip pet hair from non-washable surfaces in your home? We spoke to experts to learn how to vacuum pet hair the right way to keep a house looking its best.