Isolate one room of the house and put all of your pets into that room. I prefer to use a bedroom that is adjacent to the bathroom. Pick the room with the least amount of furniture and knick knacks. Avoid rooms that are used to store books, papers, fabric, yarn and so forth. The fleas that are currently inhabiting your pets will be going into that room so limiting the places they can hop off and hide is a good idea.

Now clean your house. Everything except the room the pets are in and of course, skip the bathroom for now. Vacuum like you have never vacuumed before. Every square inch and use the attachments to get into places that nothing can get into. Fleas are just about smaller than nothing and they can find those places you don’t think about. Do the curtains or blinds with the brush attachments. Do the tops of books on the bookshelves. Vacuum the corners of the rooms all the way up to the ceiling and get those cobwebs you have overlooked. Pull furniture out and get in the furniture with the attachments and under with the regular vacuum.

If you have baskets of yarn sitting around that you are either using or have for decoration, you need to get the fleas and flea eggs out of them too. Don’t destroy your yarn. Just shake them well and go over what you can with the brush attachment. If you have small area rugs that can be washed, get them into the laundry. If they are large vacuum them thoroughly and then vacuum under them.

Artificial flower arrangements are notorious for hiding flea eggs so clean them according to the manufacturer’s instructions. I usually turn mine upside down and wash them in cool soapy water, and then rinse. That will wash away any of the flea eggs. Decorative pillows are the same way. Either wash them or vacuum depending on their construction.

Use the list I provided previously to help you organize your cleaning:

• Have a vacuum available that uses bags; a bagless vacuum is not going to do what you need right now. After you have vacuumed, take the bag out of the vacuum cleaner (do this outside) and dispose of it. Leave the vacuum outside for awhile so that the cold temperature can kill any fleas or flea eggs that might be clinging onto the surface or interior of the vacuum cleaner.
• Have your washer and dryer empty, with plenty of room to put laundry that is waiting to be washed; be sure that the dirty laundry is well away from the areas of the house your pets are in. Start washing things as you clean; don’t stack them up for later. Start with pillows, rugs, and anything that is washer safe. Keep it going and when you take things out of the dryer take them out of the bathroom and replace them in the cleaned room.
• Large plastic garbage bags you can close tightly. Use these bags to dispose of any garbage that could have fleas or flea eggs in it. If the vacuum bag has to be changed more than once, the first filled bag can go in here. Get rid of everything you can; it is a good excuse to get rid of the junk that has been collecting. You would be surprised how many flea eggs can live in a stack of magazines so ask yourself if you really need to keep them.
• One bottle of room flea spray. You can use a fogger if you wish, but again that is a high concentration of insecticide in the air, even after four or more hours. The room flea spray is easier to contain. Spray the areas that you have vacuumed that are harder to get to and are more likely to attract sleeping cats or dogs. Think of areas such as behind the television stand or entertainment center. Those are perfect hiding places for flea colonies. You don’t want to saturate things with a spray. Use it to mist the areas. Avoid eating areas and remove pet food bowls during this process. And or course be sure all food products are put away. This is a good time to put the pet food dishes in the dishwasher too! If your pets are like mine, spray under the refrigerator; the warmth there attracts sleeping pets. Same thing with the front door and the window sills; cats are infamous for sleeping on the window frame ledges and there are lots of little areas there for fleas to hide in. Give those a quick spray and you can clean the windows the next day to remove the spray from the glass.
• A flea comb made for cats or dogs, as appropriate and other grooming tools such as a normal comb and brush for your pet. This is a personal preference but I recommend it because it physically removes fleas from the animals body. The more that are removed, the less you have to try to remove in the bath. Since cats and baths aren’t my favorite combination, I’ll do anything to make that job easier! It also removes dead hair and makes the bathing process easier for both cats and dogs. It has the added benefit of letting you know just how bad the flea problem is in your house.

Once the entire house is done, and it will go quicker with help so bribe one of the kids to help you. This has got to be worth a pizza dinner at least!

Now you can turn your attention to the pets.

Since the pets are in the bedroom next to the bathroom, you can move each one into the bathroom easily without spreading fleas all over the places you have cleaned. Bring them in one at time and:

OR

As you do each pet, put them in a room you have cleaned. The theory here is that a room with no fleas and a pet with no fleas will not further the flea problem. Carry them down the hall and try to get them settled down in a room where they can dry and rest.

When all the pets have been dipped or shampooed, get those towels into the laundry. Clean the bathroom thoroughly for fleas like you did the rest of the house. Then clean the room you had the pets waiting in before their bath and you are done!

Change your own clothes and get them in the laundry. Take all the garbage out if you haven’t yet and finish up any other areas that need to be vacuumed. It sounds silly but run the vacuum one more time in the traffic areas, and then you are done!

Now keep vacuuming everyday and if you need to, redo the entire process in ten days. If your problem is bad, you may have to do this whole procedure two or three times but you will win the battle. And don’t forget to flea spray the yard this spring before the fleas arrive. You can avoid ever having this problem again!

You can collapse now, enjoy the pizza dinner and watch a movie. Lassie, perhaps? Cats and Dogs? Maybe not. How about something that is a sheer indulgence. Whatever you do, you can rest easy knowing you have done all you can to protect your pets and family from fleas and the problems they bring into your environment.