With the current climate, there is a collective need to stay home and uphold extra careful hygiene.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, recent studies suggest that COVID-19 (Coronavirus) can persist on surfaces from a few hours or up to numerous days. This places an importance on cleaning and sanitising everyday surfaces in your own home and following a few simple actions to keep your house hygienic and disinfected during this period.
To get you started, here are 8 tips to have a clean and disinfected home.
1. Washing hands
Wash your hands often and always with soap and water. Wash for at least 20 seconds and immediately if you have just returned from outdoors.
While proper hand washing practice requires using soap and water as a priority, if you don’t have access to that, then another alternative is to use hand sanitiser.
2. Two-step process: Clean then disinfect
Regular cleaning and disinfecting around the house in important. A cleaning product doesn’t necessarily disinfect, and a disinfecting product doesn’t necessarily clean.
What that means is that everyday cleaning products are great for removing the dirt off surfaces, but a disinfectant is designed to kill germs, bacteria, etc. due to the ingredients it contains. Ensure that you have products that can clean and disinfect.
While there are all-in-one purpose cleaners, make sure you read the labels to see what they contain and how they work (some require leaving on surfaced for up to 10 minutes) to ensure your house is clean and disinfected.
3. Regular laundry & inside clothes
Doing laundry regularly is a good idea. If leaving the house for essentials, upon return, be sure to avoid contact with surfaces such as couches, chairs, etc. with clothes that you have been wearing while being outside, place your clothes into your laundry basket and change into your “inside clothes”.
Wash your clothes soon after and refrain from shaking out your laundry before placing it into your washing machine. Also, ensure you disinfect your laundry basket, hampers, etc.
4. Shoes at the door
Along with changing into your “inside clothes”, leaving your shoes at the door allows the germs on your shoes not to come in. You can have a dedicated space for your shoes or just leave them near the door as you enter or exit your home. It is also good to wash your hands after touching your shoes, especially if you’ve just returned from outdoors.
5. Shared devices & surfaces
Most households have multiple occupants, so it’s important to regularly clean and disinfect shared devices & surfaces that all residents in your house may use, including remote controls, light switches, kitchen appliances, gaming controllers, tables, chairs, etc.
6. Pockets and bags
When returning home from being outside, disinfecting items in your pockets and bags such as phones, wallets, keys, credit cards, headphones, reusable grocery bags etc. are a good way to remove any germs. Make sure you check the instructions on what you can and can’t use when cleaning these items, as items such as phones, cards and wallets might need to be cleaned in certain ways and with certain products as normal household cleaners can damage them.
7. Doors, Gates and Fences
Regularly clean and disinfect doors, gates and fences, especially their handles. Doors, gates and fences are commonly touched as you enter and exit your home, and if you have these parts of your home accessible to the public, account for non-residences touching these surfaces, including posties, food delivery drivers, etc.
8. Clean the air
Finally, where possible, it is worth considering filtering your air. While modern air conditioning units contain filters to keep out bacteria, adding ultraviolet filters to the unit or investing in air purifiers is a worthwhile extra measure.
These are just some of the ways to have a clean and disinfected home not just during COVID-19 (Coronavirus) but in general.
The team at First National Clayton JXRE hope that these 8 tips are useful to you and your family.
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