Hygiene maintenance is one of the crucial routines one must acquire to maintain health. Contrary to what might one think, doing daily chores is not only for people who are obsessed with cleanliness. Your environment should be kept clean similarly to the clothes and other objects you use every day. If you have children and pets, you know how many additional responsibilities you had to accept to maintain hygiene. This article comes with a set of tips that how to improve hygiene in your home to protect your family’s health.
Cleaning frequently touched surfaces
While doing chores, you should pay special attention to high-traffic areas. Areas where people tend to spend more time – whether only passing or doing something, need more thorough cleaning than the rest of the house. These can be only floors but also door knobs, light switches, handles, tables, desks, chairs with backs, and other surfaces you use or touch a lot. These surfaces should be cleaned with a stronger cleaning solution that contains alcohol or another strong disinfectant.
Disinfectant at the entrance
The best spot to remove the outside dust and dirt is at the entrance. If you have a mudroom, clean the place often, and be sure to be thorough if you have active children. Be certain to have cleaning solutions available there. If your children are small, keep the cleaning solutions hard to reach and leave safer cleaning supplies like antibacterial wipes. If you have a toilette near the entrance, encourage both children and guests to wash their hands when they get to your place. At least 20 seconds should be spent lathering the hands in soap.
Clean your phone, keys, earphones, etc.
Some of the appliances and technology we use daily also hold on to bacteria easily. The mobile phone, the earbuds, the keyboard, the touch screen on tablets, smart systems, and laptops are more used home technology that has small parts. A study from 2021 on touch screen bacteria contamination proved that touch screens are fomites, additionally contributing to the microbial exposure of any room, surface, or person that it gets in contact with.
The difference between standard cleaning and disinfection
Different cleaning solutions have different effects on surfaces, which further means that it is not the same what type of cleaning solution and its main cleaning ingredient should be used for different surfaces. The professional house cleaning service from Melbourne differs from standard cleaning and disinfection. The disinfectant cleaning solutions should be used more on the above-mentioned frequently touched areas and frequently used appliances to get rid of outdoor bacteria. Alcohol-based solutions do more thorough disinfection but might damage sensitive materials, so the vinegar and lemon-based solutions might be both good and cheap replacements.
Floor cleaning
The floors should be cleaned with a damp mop rather than dry to ensure deep cleaning of the surface. You should start with a detergent solution as it removes the dirt and bacteria from the surface it is used for, but to kill the germs you should use disinfectant after using the detergent solution. The floors in the high-traffic areas of the home should be cleaned even daily. For hard non-porous areas like ceramic tiles, you can use diluted bleach in proportions of four spoons of bleach on a bucket of water. Remember that bleach should never be mixed with other cleaners.
Cleaning carpets and rugs
Carpets that cover floors in the high traffic areas vacuum twice a week or more often if you have pets. The carpets and rugs should be cleaned professionally to remove every piece of dirt, but if you prefer doing this by yourself invest in a water filtration vacuum. The safest way to know that your rugs are clean and safe is to vacuum them often and wash them as per the professionals’ recommendation.
Walls disinfection
You might expect that walls are not supposed to be cleaned without causing damage to the paint, but this is not the case. Collect the webs from the corners each week, and dust the wall altogether, especially if it is close to the window that is staying open frequently. As for the disinfection, you should repaint your home every few years – if you or your family member is a smoker do it every year to maintain the cleanliness of the air as wall paint can contain VOCs that can cause air pollution.
Bed cleaning
The bed is a piece of furniture that tends to be easily neglected when cleaning. People change the covers weekly, but many forget that the pillow, as well as the mattress, collects dust and dirt and can even become a home for dangerous organisms like mold and bed bugs. When doing a weekly change of the covers, use the opportunity to do the deep vacuuming of the mattress. The pillow covers should be changed every few days, whereas the pillows and blankets come with a user guide that contains maintenance recommendations. So this is all about how to improve hygiene in your home to protect your family’s health
When should you wash your hands?
Hand washing remains the most important way of keeping us, other people, pets, and surfaces cleaner and safer. The recommendation is to wash your hands when:
- after using the toilet;
- after coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose;
- before meals or handling food;
- after putting groceries or other items away;
- also after touching blood or any body fluid;
- after touching any frequently touched surfaces in common areas; and
- as soon as you get home.
Author bio:
Alison Pearson is an interior design student. She is a writer and designer, and her ultimate passion is art and architecture. She is also a bibliophile and her favorite book is “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner. Follow her on Twitter.