We are in the middle of winter right now and there is that awful coronavirus scaring the entire planet, so it would be nice of us to take additional measures in hopes that we could prevent the spread of diseases.
Keeping your home clean and top-notch personal hygiene are the two best ways to prevent anything coming into your home or body and infecting you or other household members. However, “clean” is a broad term, and those seasonal house cleaning checklists are only becoming longer each season. We need to learn how to simplify certain things in life, and this checklist might be one of them.
Flu is more common in the winter. It likes spending time indoors because the air is less humid inside than outside. And people also spend more time indoors during wintertime, they cough and sneeze in such environments and viruses simply go easily from one person to another. This is why we should all wash our hands more often and get flu shots. But we can’t tell other people what to do and can’t prevent those people from coming into our homes.
Some of those people don’t wash their hands often, they may sneeze or cough while in our home and some of them even get offended if you tell them they must take off their shoes. Those are the reasons why we should keep our homes clean all the time.
Shoes, Carpets, and Bacteria
First things first – keep your floors clean. Most people postpone carpet cleaning from December to April. They think that it would be the best idea to postpone it because of all the rain and snow. But it is more important to clean your carpets during the winter months. You spend more time indoors and so do your guests. All the bacteria, viruses and soil stay in your carpets for months if you don’t clean them. If the jobs seems a little too intimidating, you can have the help of companies like Carpet Cleaning London.
Clean all “Points of Contact”
This is one of those first steps you should take when cleaning your home. You should clean all the surfaces that can be touched. This means:
- Light switches;
- Faucet and toilet handle;
- All the remote control clickers;
- Refrigerator handles;
- Stove knobs;
- Door knobs, handles, and locks;
- Stair rails;
- Kitchen countertops;
- All the areas used for the preparation of food;
- Desks, etc.
You might want to steam-clean all the surfaces, but if you don’t have a steamer, then just use disinfectant wipes or alcohol.
Another way to disinfect the hard surfaces is whipping or mopping them with a solution of ½ cup of bleach per gallon of water. Rinse it and let it dry.
Keep Your Hands Clean
This is the “oldest trick in the book” if we can call it a trick. It is the most effective and the most important thing you should do frequently because of your health and the health of your loved ones.
A Little Bit of Fresh Air
You should move the stale air out and let the fresh air in by briefly opening windows every single day.
Let the Sunshine In
Once you open up those windows, for the love of God make sure to also lift those blinds. You should let some natural light come into your house.
Your Phone is Dirtier than Your Toilet Seat
Cell phones are far dirtier than you think. According to Seattle Times journalist Bobby Caina Calvan, your phone is packed with bacteria. It has 25,127 bacteria per square inch. On the other hand, an average toilet seat has around 1,201 bacteria per square inch.
Think about it the next time you start typing a message or answer a phone call while eating.
To completely protect yourself from these bacteria, first – keep your phone away from any kind of a toilet, and second – wipe it with a solution of alcohol and water a couple of times per month.
And What if The Germs Have Already Gotten Into Your Home?
You can take all the preventive measures, but sometimes the flu finds its way into your home. Your child can catch it in school, you can catch it at your workplace, either way, you should be careful about the next steps.
- If somehow, a virus finds its way into your home, you have to fight back. This is the only thing you can do to protect everyone in your home. You should clean and disinfect your home and above-mentioned surfaces often during and after illness appears.
- Those that are sick should avoid making any contact with those that are still healthy.
- Avoid sharing towels, dishes, and other items.
- Clean all the bedding and blankets used by the sick person once the illness is over.
- Change your toothbrush if you have those cheap, disposable ones. If you own a more expensive toothbrush, then take an empty cup, add some hydrogen peroxide, and place your toothbrush in it. Let it sit there for 30 minutes and rinse it with water.
As you can see from the above mentioned tips, the most important detail is hygiene. You have to be aware of all the dangers that live on all the surfaces around. Make sure you don’t let them in.
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Interesting related article: “Does it make financial sense to hire a cleaning service?“