House Cleaning Tips During COVID-19 Outbreak

Coronavirus has otherwise known as COVID-19 has made its presence known in the entire world and has forced people to reside within their own premises at home or in their apartment rooms until the pandemic has been taken care of. But just because we’re spending most of our time at home, doesn’t mean that we’re completely in the clear of the virus. 

Even with the pandemic at large, there are times when we want to go out and buy groceries if we can’t call for them from home, or perhaps even go to the bank to deposit our monthly salary. But God forbid if you or any of your family members are showing signs of being ill, then the need/urge to disinfect the entire house is critically important.

And even if you’ve taken every precaution to arm yourself with latex gloves and a surgical mask Canada while you go out shopping, you may still be carrying the germs on your protective items and accompanying you back home. 

In this article, we’ll bestow the proper house cleaning techniques that you need to practice during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Furthermore, our homes may not be in the best clean condition. Before the pandemic, we often relied on hiring a house cleaning service Houston to keep our homes clean and sanitized. With the pandemic forcing us to socially distance ourselves and for workers to isolate ourselves, this has become much harder. This has meant an increase in dirty, germ-breeding environments.

COVID-19 House Cleaning Tips

 

1. Cleaning Is Not Sanitizing Or Disinfecting

According to the CDC, cleaning isn’t exactly similar to sanitizing or disinfecting. The renowned medical institute of the United States suggests that using soap and water to clean surfaces only removes the germs, dirt, and other impurities but doesn’t necessarily kill them. Disinfecting does kill germs, only it doesn’t result in clean and tidy surfaces or even removes the germs after they’ve been exterminated. 

Sanitizing is a much better solution as it either cleans or disinfects surfaces, drastically reducing the number of germs on objects and surfaces to safer levels.

2. Regularly Clean The Most Common Surfaces In Areas

During the outbreak, it’s our duty to share with you as many house-cleaning tips as we possibly can to reduce your chances of catching the virus. So make it a habit to regularly clean those parts of your house that you regularly touch and use. 

Common examples include kitchen tables, doorknobs, toilets, light switches, faucet handles, sinks, as well as cell phones, and TV remotes. As you can see, these are all things we touch. When at home, cleaning regularly is enough to protect yourself. However, when you are at work or out in public areas, you might consider using gloves (from a website like unigloves.co.uk) to protect your hands from picking up any bacteria. Also be sure to focus on places such as the kitchen and the living room, particularly where your family usually gathers together. If you’re cooking every day, be sure to wipe the refrigerator handles and the stove.

You should do this even when buying a new house (see some examples on this website) as it’s likely many prospective buyers touched the most common areas while viewing it.

3. Use Proper Cleaners And Methods

Understand that not every cleaning agent is effective in eliminating possible traces of the COVID-19 virus. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) suggest using an alcohol cleaning solution that consists of 70% alcohol or diluted household bleach solution. Household disinfectants such as Lysol and Clorox should be used. Another effective solution is hydrogen peroxide, although it has to sit in one place for at least a minute in order to exterminate the virus.

The EPA Viral Emerging Pathogens Policy recommends you practice the following disinfecting and cleaning tips:

• Be sure to clean and remove any excess grime or dirt from surfaces before disinfecting.
• Once you’re done disinfecting, be sure to allow the surface to air-dry as the product label recommends.
• When disinfecting a choice, of food or surfaces, rinse using water after air-drying them.
• Don’t forget about things that you regularly touch with your hands, such as your smartphone.
• If you’re using a disinfectant wipe, throw it out instead of flushing it away.

Washing hands is commonly advised by CDC as well, although 95% of people, according to a study, are not doing it right. Here’s what you need to do: 

• First, wash your hands using clean water under the tap before lathering it with soap.
• Leather both of your hands and be sure to get between the fingers, the back of the hands, and under the nails.
• Be sure to scrub the hands for at least 20 seconds before you rinse and dry them.

4. Use Bleach Mixture To Clean Floors

When stepping outside, our shoes pick up a lot of gross things along the way, and if we don’t take them off when we get inside the house, we’ll only be inviting all those germs and viruses right into our domain. So to effectively clean the floors, CDC suggests we mop them using one cup of bleach mixed with 5 gallons of water.

To clean hard, non-porous surfaces such as glazed tile floors, the EPA recommends dilutable Maquat products –  although we must prevent it from getting on the grout. 

For porous floors like Hardwood, we should either use a disinfecting wet mop cloth or mix one gallon of water and half a cup of white vinegar. Using bleach on hardwood would not be wise as it would remove the stain color. 

5. Cheap A Cloth Face Mask With You

Recently, the CDC went back on its advice regarding face masks and recommends that everyone wear a cloth face mask instead. Here are the instructions from the CDC on how to make a cloth face covering to keep yourself from Catching the COVID-19 virus. 

Masks are an extra precaution apart from simply staying at home, practicing social distancing, washing flash disinfecting your hands, as well as other guidelines that have been made aware to the public by the CDC. 

6. Wear Gloves When You Clean

Another pivotal rule in cleaning houses during the pandemic is to always wear disposable latex gloves. Since coronavirus is an airborne disease and spreads rather quickly, you should do your best to stay protected. Just make sure you don’t touch any surfaces or objects that you don’t often deal with every day while you’re cleaning because the virus can transfer itself onto the gloves from any contaminated surface.

7. Use Warm Water To Wash Laundry

One of the other effective Coronavirus household cleaning tips that you should practice is to use warm (or even hot) water when washing laundry. Coldwater isn’t going to cut it. and if you’re collecting your laundry inside a linen bag, you have to throw the linen bag into the laundry as well. And if anyone in your house might be showing symptoms of the virus, then you need to put their laundry in a different trash bag, but not without gloves, of course.