The coronavirus pandemic struck in early 2020, and a year later, we’re still in the midst of it.
While the best thing to do is to shelter in place, it’s not always possible. You do still have to go out for necessities, and maybe even work and/or school.
So what can you do to keep everyone safe and healthy? Read our COVID-19 cleaning checklist to find out.
See Also: Houston Cleaning Services
Wash Your Hands Often
One of the biggest things you can do to keep yourself healthy is to wash your hands often.
While you’re out and about, make good use of hand sanitizer, especially after you touch surfaces. And when you get home, always give your hands a good wash.
A proper hand wash is with warm water and soap. It should also last at least 20 seconds.
Don’t forget to moisturize your hands too! When you wash your hands more often and use hand sanitizer with alcohol in it, this can dry your hands out.
Cracks in your skin can put you at more of a risk for infections. So moisturize regularly to prevent this from happening.
Clean and Disinfect High-Touch Surfaces
There are certain things that are touched a lot more in spaces, which can be great areas for the coronavirus to linger.
To stop it in its tracks, you need to clean and disinfect these high-touch surfaces often.
Don’t know where to start? Here’s a list of high-touch surfaces you’ll find in most homes and businesses:
- Doorknobs
- Light switches
- Counters
- Table surfaces
- Faucet knobs
- Toilet seat
- Toilet flush button or handle
- Chairs
You’ll also want to clean and disinfect TV remotes and game controllers often, especially if your household uses these things all the time.
Every time you use your cutting boards and countertops, you should clean them right after. You should already be doing this, even without the pandemic.
How to Clean and Disinfect
Most people don’t know how to clean and disinfect properly, which can mean leaving behind germs.
Cleaning means to clear away the surface in question. This means sweeping off things like food crumbs, dust, and other debris. You should then go over the surface with some soapy water or a specialized cleaning spray.
To disinfect the surface is to eliminate microbes. You can do this by applying a disinfectant spray or by wiping with disinfecting wipes.
With disinfectant sprays, take note of how long you need to leave the spray on the surface before wiping it up. If you don’t give it enough time, it may not kill all microbes present.
Make sure that you wear gloves while cleaning. You don’t want to accidentally pick up any germs (the coronavirus or otherwise) and get sick.
Making Your Own Sanitizing Solution
What’s great is you can create your own sanitizing products at home if you or the store runs out.
One option is to mix together bleach and water. Use a ratio of 1/4 cup bleach to 1 gallon of water.
For cleaning, you can mix equal parts of vinegar with water.
Clean Your Reusable Masks Correctly
Maybe you want to do your part in looking after the environment, so instead of buying boxes of 1-time use masks, you wear reusable cloth masks.
In that case, you’ll want to make sure that you’re wearing and cleaning your masks correctly.
After each use, you should wash them right away. Don’t wear them again, as these masks are now contaminated.
Some masks can go in the laundry, but for convenience’s sake, you should wash them by hand so you can wear them again promptly.
Fill a sink with warm water and soap. Then, immerse your mask and scrub at it.
Drain the sink and then rinse the mask with warm water to get all the soap out. You can then hang your mask up to dry.
To make things easier, you should have at least 2 masks. That way, one’s always ready to go while the other is drying.
Cleaning Schedule
Now that you know how to clean and disinfect your house, you might be wondering how often you should be doing these things.
The truth is, it really depends on the traffic in your home or business.
In general, clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces multiple times a day, especially if you have medium to high traffic. Clean all other surfaces every other day.
Ideally, you should also clean and disinfect your home every time an outsider visits. Obviously, this is tougher to do with a business, so just clean high-touch surfaces as often as you can.
If anyone in your household gets COVID, then you’ll want to be even more diligent with cleaning. Try to isolate them and if you have more than 1 bathroom, designate 1 for just that person to use.
When the sick person comes out of their room to do anything, you’ll want to disinfect all surfaces they touch.
Use Professional COVID Cleaning Services
Whether you’re worried your business is contaminated, or you’ve actually had exposure to the virus in your space, it’s always a good idea to use professional COVID cleaning services.
These experts can follow proper protocol to thoroughly decontaminate your business so it’s safe to be inside again. This can help give your employees and customers peace of mind.
Visit http://www.hcienv.com/ for more information on these services.
Use This COVID-19 Cleaning Checklist
With this COVID-19 cleaning checklist, you’re well on your way to providing safe spaces for you and those around you.
Make sure you keep up with regular cleaning and employ the services of professionals if needed. That way, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that everything’s spotless and germ-free!
If you found these cleaning tips helpful, then make sure you browse the rest of our blog!