While keeping your home pristine and clean might be hard during these difficult times – with more members of the household restricted to the home, creating a constant deluge of dust, dirt and general grime – never has it been more important. Scientists have revealed that Covid-19 can survive on some surfaces for more than 24 hours (up to 72 hours in some cases), and when you think about how many items (not to mention people) that enter your home may be carrying traces of the virus, it can seem like an impossible task of repeating your house cleaning.
However, there are some simple and very effective measures that you can take to help ensure that your home, and those living in it, are safe and protected from potentially deadly germs and bacteria:
Prevent Germs From Even Entering Your Home:
If you’ve just had a home delivery or visited the store and come back with some household items or food, be sure to disinfect every item, and if you’re removing packaging, place it in the trash immediately and ideally, keep the trash can as isolated as possible.
If you’ve just come back from somewhere, there is always a chance that even if you’re wearing a mask and haven’t inhaled the virus, the virus could have attached itself to your clothes, so take them off and put them in the laundry before you risk shedding those germs all over your home.
Wash or sanitize your hands immediately, and then again after disinfecting the products.
Clean Your Hands The Second You Walk Into Your Home:
Anyone coming into your home should thoroughly wash or sanitize their hands immediately. The most convenient way to do this is to have a small sanitizing station right inside your entranceway, so that any members of your household returning to the home can ensure that they don’t transmit the virus (or any other germs and bacteria) to anyone, or to any surfaces. Every person should sanitize their hands and their phone (you can buy disposable disinfectant wipes for this purpose) and if you place a small trash can there, they can throw used wipes or any other trash in it instead of bringing it through the home.
Trap Bacteria At Your Door:
It’s also a good idea to place a doormat at all entrances/exits and other areas that experience high footfall, to trap any errant particles and prevent them from being transmitted all over your home. However, this is dependent upon them being vacuumed frequently to ensure that anything trapped on them, is picked up and eliminated swiftly.
Frequently Clean All Surfaces That Are Often Touched:
You don’t need to go crazy about your house cleaning, but focus on those that are frequently touched, not forgetting light switches, remote controls and door handles, and make sure your cleaning solution is a proven disinfectant. Some of the most frequently used active ingredients include hydrogen peroxide, citric acid, ethanol and sodium hypochlorite.
Sanitizing is vital during a pandemic, but don’t forget that preventing any germs from infecting members of your household should always be your priority, no matter what the circumstances.
