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Despite your efforts at vacuuming and dusting, it seems that lint, hair, and debris stubbornly cling to furniture, bedding, rugs, draperies, and clothing. This is especially true in homes where four-legged friends share the living space. Pet parents love their fur babies, but shedding can be a persistent and difficult problem.
A lint roller is a helpful tool for quickly tidying your home or sprucing up an outfit. In addition to removing hair and debris from clothing and furniture, lint rollers can be useful for car interiors, purse and backpack interiors, lampshades, drawers, and more. Read on to learn how to find the best lint roller to suit your purposes.
- BEST OVERALL: PetLovers Extra Sticky Lint Roller
- BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK: Scotch-Brite Lint Roller Value Pack
- BEST FOR PETS: ChomChom Roller Pet Hair Remover
- BEST SCENTED: Gain Lint Roller, Scented
- BEST NON-STICKY: Nado Care Pet Hair Remover – Lint Roller
- BEST LONG-HANDLED: UNIKON 802 Lint Roller
- BEST FOR TRAVEL: Scotch-Brite Mini Travel Lint Roller
What to Consider When Choosing the Best Lint Roller
With so many lint rollers available, shoppers should look for specific features that best suit their needs. Choices include adhesive and nonadhesive models, compact lint rollers for travel and quick touch-ups, and mop-style lint rollers that remove debris from floors, sofas, bedding, and other large-surface areas. Scented lint rollers neutralize unpleasant odors while picking up hair and lint, a helpful benefit for households with multiple pets. Ahead, explore several considerations to aid in selecting the best lint roller.
Type
Lint rollers are handheld devices that remove lint, dust, pet hair, human hair, dandruff, and other small debris particles from clothing, upholstery, rugs, bedding, and other surfaces. Most lint rollers feature short handles, but some include longer handles that allow users to clean floors and hard-to-reach places.
Adhesive lint rollers feature rolls of sticky sheets wrapped around a cardboard cylinder that is placed on a rolling barrel with a handle. Rolling the adhesive-coated surface across clothing or upholstery causes lint, dust, and fur to stick to the sheet, removing it from the fabric or household surface. With perforations similar to those on a roll of paper towels, the adhesive sheets are torn off by the user after they fill with lint and debris. The rolls can be refilled as needed.
Brush-type lint rollers do not require rolls of adhesive sheets. Instead, they utilize brushes with fine bristles to remove lint from surfaces. These models may feature waste compartments where debris is stored until users empty it into a trash receptacle.
Adherence Material
In much the same way that adhesive tape sticks to surfaces, adhesive lint roller sheets create adherence for small, loose particles found on clothing, furniture, and other surfaces. Fine bits of dust and debris, pet hair, lint, and dandruff stick to the lint-roller paper, leaving behind a clean household surface. Lower-quality adhesive lint rollers may leave behind a faint, sticky residue, so opt for models from reputable manufacturers.
Brush-type lint rollers do not use adhesives. Instead, the back-and-forth motion of the brush on a fabric surface creates adherence, with the fine bristles trapping debris. Many brush-type lint rollers include waste compartments to hold the debris until it is emptied into the trash.
Reusable vs. Disposable
Lint rollers that use adhesive sheets are sometimes referred to as disposable lint rollers. In some cases the handles and barrels are reusable, while only the adhesive sheets are disposable. Users tear off and dispose of the sheets when they become covered in lint, hair, and debris. Refill rolls of adhesive sheets fit onto the reusable barrels to provide continued usage.
Brush-type and washable lint rollers are completely reusable. Some nonadhesive lint rollers feature fine-bristle brushes along with waste compartments. Reuse this type of lint roller after emptying the waste compartment and wiping with a paper towel.
Some sticky lint rollers do not feature rolls of disposable sheets, but rather a sticky rolling component that can be cleaned with soap and water. Once dry, they become sticky again and ready for reuse.
Scent
When a household tool accomplishes two tasks at once, users save time and money. Scented lint rollers provide lint-removing capability along with ingredients that neutralize unpleasant odors and leave behind fresh fragrances. With scented lint rollers, users can enjoy both neatness and odor elimination on clothing, upholstered furniture, carpets, bedding, and more.
Some scented lint rollers include a container of air-freshener spray attached to the rolling unit. Adhesive sheets on the roller pick up lint, hair, and debris, while the spray neutralizes odors from pets, cooking, and spills. Additionally, the spray may leave behind a pleasant fragrance.
Other types of scented rollers utilize ingredients in the adhesive sheets that neutralize unpleasant odors and leave behind fresh fragrances. These lint rollers do not rely on sprays for odor control, as the deodorizing and fragrance-exuding components are present in the composition of the adhesive sheets.
Portability
Most lint rollers are small and portable, measuring approximately 6 to 9 inches long and 2 to 5 inches in diameter. Designed for handheld operation, their weight ranges from approximately 2.6 ounces to 1.8 pounds.
Travel-size lint rollers retract into plastic sheaths for packing in luggage, backpacks, or purses. The plastic casing protects the sticky sheets until travelers are ready to use the rollers.
Although lint rollers are portable, users may want to stash them in multiple areas. Keep one in a clothes closet for tidying up while getting dressed. Another lint roller might go in the car or in a purse or briefcase for on-the-go lint removal from upholstery and clothing. Store another with cleaning supplies for quickly refreshing upholstered furniture, bedding, rugs and carpets, draperies, and floors.
Our Top Picks
The following recommendations represent both adhesive and nonadhesive as well as disposable and reusable lint rollers. These are offered at various price points, including several value packs. Discover the best lint roller among these top picks.
Best Overall
PetLovers Extra Sticky Lint Roller
Though touted as a fur-removal solution for pet owners, this value pack of two lint rollers with three additional refills is great for anyone dealing with lint, dust, dirt, or debris-covered surfaces. The extra-sticky, pet-hair-strength adhesive makes these lint rollers a great solution for tackling dusty or hair-covered surfaces between sweepings and vacuumings, while the rollers perform a 360-degree rotation for easy and thorough operation. Easy-peel sheets and an ergonomically designed handle further simplify use.
These PetLovers rollers can be used on clothing, upholstery, floors, car interiors, tables, car seats, and more.
Best Bang For the Buck
Scotch-Brite Lint Roller Value Pack
Stock up on enough lint rollers for home, work, and travel with this budget-friendly five-pack from Scotch-Brite. Each roller includes 95 disposable sticky sheets treated with the well-known Scotch adhesive for optimal effectiveness in removing pet and human hair, fur, lint, and small pieces of debris from a variety of surfaces.
The ergonomically designed handles fit users’ hands for comfortable use, while the disposable sheets tear off easily. With their convenient design, the lint rollers make it quick and easy to tidy up clothing before leaving home or attending an important meeting. In addition to clothing, Scotch-Brite lint rollers work well on furniture, curtains, rugs, lampshades, and the interiors of purses and book bags. Use them wherever a quick cleanup is needed to remove small, unwanted particles of debris.
Best for Pets
ChomChom Roller Pet Hair Remover
Instead of relying on the adhesive action of sticky sheets to remove pet hair and debris from clothing, furniture, rugs, curtains, and more, this reusable lint roller from ChomChom contains a patented, high-quality brush system housed inside the handheld plastic unit.
When users move the lint remover vigorously back and forth across a surface, it creates static electricity that pulls hair and debris into the unit, depositing it in the waste compartment. A quick-release cover pops off to facilitate easy disposal of the debris into the trash. Free of bisphenol-A chemical (BPA), this plastic lint remover is reusable, safe, eco-friendly, and easy to clean.
Best Scented
Gain Lint Roller, Scented
With this lint roller from Gain, the refreshing scent of clean laundry accompanies lint removal. Use it on coats, sweaters, suits, formal wear, and other clothing items. It’s also ideal for removing pet hair, human hair, dandruff, dust, and small debris particles from upholstered furniture, carpet, bedding, and purses, while leaving behind a refreshing fragrance.
Once full, the perforated sheets are easy to tear off for disposal. Each roll features its own handle, eliminating the need to detach used rolls and attach refills.
Best Non-Sticky
Nado Care Pet Hair Remover – Lint Roller
No need to worry about stocking up on rolls of refill sheets here: This brush-style lint remover from Nado Care pulls in pet hair, dust, and other debris without the need for adhesives. Applied with a back-and-forth motion, this lint remover pulls in pet hair and other small particles to clean upholstered surfaces, rugs, bedding, curtains, and clothing. The particles get trapped in the interior compartment for disposal in a trash receptacle.
Cleaning out the waste compartment is simple: Just lift the cover and shake out the contents into a trash can. Then wipe the compartment with a paper towel to leave it clean for future use.
While this lint remover is effective on fibrous surfaces such as upholstered furniture, rugs, bedding, and clothing, it does not work well on hard or wet surfaces.
Best Long-Handled
UNIKON 802 Lint Roller
Use this UNIKON lint roller like a mop to pick up pet hair and other debris from hard floors or soft surfaces. It works on wood, laminate, carpet, rugs, and upholstery, delivering more thorough results than a dust mop.
The handle features four adjustable lengths to facilitate handheld operation as well as a floor-mopping action. Modify its length from 10 to 19 inches for removing hair and lint from furniture, bedding, automobile interiors, and other easy-to-reach places. Lengthen the handle to 28.5 inches or 37.5 inches to use the lint roller like a floor mop. Because it rolls under sofas and other furniture pieces, it has the advantage of cleaning surfaces where vacuums may not reach. The roller itself is 6.3 inches wide and 2.99 inches in diameter.
Remove each used sheet by tearing at a perforated cutline. When a roll of adhesive sheets is empty, the quick-release mechanism makes replacing the roll easy.
Best for Travel
Scotch-Brite Mini Travel Lint Roller
It’s hard to look sharp and well-groomed when dog hair, cat hair, or lint sticks to an outfit. For travelers who want to look their best, this mini lint roller from Scotch-Brite comes to the rescue. Toss it into luggage, a purse, a briefcase, or the car’s glove compartment for last-minute touch-ups on the go.
The adhesive sheets on a rolling cylinder retract into a plastic sheath, making this lint roller compact and neat. When the roller is retracted into its casing, the unit measures only 4.5 inches long by 1.61 inches in diameter. At just 2.61 ounces, it’s a lightweight addition to a traveler’s stash of on-the-go necessities.
Replacing the rolls is simple, as the used roll simply slides off to make room for the refill roll. Refills are available in 15- and 30-sheet mini rolls.
FAQs About Lint Rollers
A lint roller is a simple, low-tech, easy-to-use tool that offers a no-hassle solution to the problem of messy lint and hair on clothing and household surfaces. Whether adhesive or nonadhesive, disposable or reusable, large or small, a lint roller makes a valuable contribution to an arsenal of household and wardrobe cleaning supplies. When shopping for the best lint roller, the following answers to some common questions may help provide clarity about lint rollers.
Q. Can I use a lint roller on anything besides clothes?
Yes. Use a lint roller to clean furniture, rugs, carpet, lampshades, purse interiors, automobile interiors, and more.
Q. Can I use my lint roller on my pet to pick up shedding hair?
Yes. Running a lint roller over your pet’s fur to pick up loose hairs will not hurt the animal.
Q. How do I store a sticky lint roller?
To prevent gathering dust, return the lint roller to its original packaging before storing it. Store the packaged lint roller upright (standing on its head) along with cleaning supplies in a closet or cabinet. When it’s time to use it again, simply tear off the old sticky sheet to reveal a new one.
Q. Are lint roller sheets recyclable?
The sticky sheets from lint rollers are not recyclable.
Q. How do I clean a lint roller?
Nonsticky lint rollers include waste compartments where hair, lint, and debris become trapped. Empty the debris into a trash receptacle, and wipe the compartment with a paper towel. Do not immerse in water, as the interior brushes may be damaged. Lint rollers with adhesive sheets do not need to be cleaned. Simply tear off the perforated sheets and throw them away.
