As families adjust to living in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ve had to change almost every one of their daily practices.
One of the most important changes is in cleaning your home. Where you might have wiped down surfaces before to keep things from looking too grimy, now wiping them down is key to protecting the health of your family.
The common cold can develop anywhere from one to three days after someone comes into contact with the virus, and COVID-19 is no different.
In fact, the coronavirus is reportedly more contagious than the average cold or flu virus, sticking on surfaces for longer and spreading to anyone who touches them.
The world’s new emphasis on disinfecting these surfaces means adopting new cleaning methods.
Especially turning to professional services like CHRIStal Clean, Waukesha WI amongst many others.
Let’s take a look at the best tips for cleaning your home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Know the Difference Between Cleaning and Disinfecting
Cleaning and disinfecting are two different chores.
When you’re cleaning your home, you’re removing contaminants from a surface.
When you’re disinfecting, you’re killing pathogens that could spread the virus. Doing both every day is important to staying healthy during this crisis, especially if anyone or anything has entered or exited your home that day.
Even if no one in your home is sick and potentially spreading germs, keeping up these practices will help prevent anyone from getting sick in the future.
The first step in cleaning your home’s surfaces is to remove contaminants, dust, and debris.
You can clean by wiping surfaces with a hand towel and soapy water or cleaning spray.
Then, you’ll apply a surface-appropriate disinfectant.
Typically, using disinfecting wipes or spray is the easiest way to disinfect. If you can’t find disinfectant at the store, you can make a home-made disinfectant with four teaspoons of household bleach and one quart of water.
Pour both into a one-quart spray bottle, shake it vigorously, and then spray it on the surface you want to disinfect. Let it sit for 10 minutes and then wipe it away with a wet cloth.
Target High-Touch Surfaces
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend cleaning and disinfecting your home’s high-touch surfaces every day.
This is namely because researchers have discovered that the coronavirus is able to live on surfaces such as cardboard for 24 hours and up to two or three days on plastics and stainless steel.
Even if you aren’t leaving your home, any goods or people coming into it can track in the virus, which can stick around for a lot longer than whatever or whoever brought it in.
The most common high-touch surfaces that you should clean and disinfect daily include:
- Table surfaces
- Doorknobs
- Bathroom and kitchen counters
- Faucets and faucet knobs
- Toilets
- The arms, back, and seat of hard dining chairs
- Light switches
- TV remote controls
- Computer keyboards, mouses, and touchpads
The high-touch surfaces in your home may differ from this list, so think carefully about what surfaces in your home your family touches the most.
If you’re opening and closing the windows in your home — through which about 30% of a home’s heating energy is lost — to catch the fresh spring breeze, then the window frames and sills should be on your list.
If your kids spend time playing video games, make sure that the game controllers are cleaned and disinfected every day.
By having a keen eye for the commonly-touched surfaces in your home, you can ensure that they are properly sanitized.
Don’t Forget Your Car
When you leave the house, you immediately become exposed to germs and viruses.
It’s easy for the virus to follow you back into your car and stick around in there.
You then run the risk of bringing the virus into your house from the car.
This makes it important to sanitize the high-touch surfaces of your vehicle. As most used cars have had an average of three owners, it’s a good idea to sanitize your car anyways to prevent coming into contact with the germs of the previous owners.
However, many car owners have never thought to sanitize their car’s interior, leaving them vulnerable to the coronavirus as well as a whole host of other germs.
The most important areas to sanitize are the steering wheel, door handles and controls, keys or start button, gear shift, buttons and knobs on the dash, the console and cup holders, anything touchscreen, and the sun visor.
The best way to disinfect the high-touch surfaces in your car is with disinfectant wipes.
You can use them on every surface except for touchscreens and anything made of leather.
Look for wipes that are specifically made to clean your car’s leather to avoid damaging it.
You can clean cloth seats with a spray like Lysol, just be sure to give them time to dry. To clean a car’s touchscreen, use a microfiber cloth to wipe it down and clean it.
By staying vigilant about cleaning your home and disinfecting the high-touch surfaces, you can protect your family from the coronavirus.
Make sure to get your family members involved in these clean practices so that everyone can do their part to keep the house safe.
Together, you’ll be able to make it through this pandemic with your health intact.