If you have a four-legged friend at home, the chances are that you also may occasionally have some cat hair on your T-shirt or dog hair on your trousers.
The same goes for your blankets, your chairs and your socks. You can always remove it with a lint roller if it is not much hair or alternatively a special pet hair attachment for your hoover to clean the sofa, says a German association specializing in household hygiene.
But if you are using your washing machine to clean items that have animal hair on them, it pays to know how to prep your laundry, says , says Germany's Industrial Association for Body Care and Detergents (IKW).
First, give them a good thorough shake, ideally outdoors, and then briefly brush them off if necessary. Then try putting an anti-lint ball or a tennis ball in the drum of your washing machine as the hair will stick to them during the wash cycle.
Choose a wash cycle with a high water level, such as "easy-care plus" or "delicate" - or add an extra rinse cycle. Then, try and let your laundry dry outside in the wind, if you can, to get rid of any remaining hair that may still be clinging to your clothing.
Some animal hair may remain in your washing machine, so when you do your next wash, try washing things that you don't mind getting a bit of animal hair on - such as floor mops or clothes that you wear for gardening.
If your machine's drum is full of hair, try using a cleaning programme with a machine detergent. Also, make sure you regularly clean out the machine's filter.