Regular cleaning is one of the most basic ways to keep your Oxbow rental home a safe place to be during flu season. But this means you have to clean more than just the visible dirt. Doorknobs, light switches, computer keyboards, smartphones, tablets, television remotes, and game controllers are all easy to miss when cleaning the house. Unless you sanitize them regularly, they can have more harmful bacterial on them than your toilet.
Common Dirty Devices
You should regularly be cleaning your smartphone, tablet, keyboard, mouse, television remote, and gaming controller. Since these electronic devices are touched multiple times throughout the day, especially phones, controllers, and remotes, they can have ten times the amount of bacteria found on other surfaces in your home. Every time you touch something and then touch your phone or computer keyboard, you are basically transferring bacteria from one surface to another.
A surface that is often touched will collect more bacteria, rapidly becoming a serious health hazard. Flu season is also the time when it is easier to pick up germs and unknowingly pass them on to others when using shared devices, controllers, and even the TV remote. This is why it is so important to clean your dirty devices. You wouldn’t want your family to get sick just because you didn’t clean your devices every day or after every use.
High-Touch Surfaces
Are you keeping track of everything you touch around the house each day? You would be surprised! High-touch surfaces are the areas that are often used but generally do not make it onto your cleaning lists. Some of these are doorknobs, cabinet handles, window blind controls, and light switches. We touch these items daily, sometimes even multiple times a day.
If these surfaces have not been wiped down with a germ-killing solution recently, chances are, they are harboring high levels of harmful bacteria. One study found that light switches often have 200 bacteria per square inch, while most toilets have 20 on average.
Especially during flu season, it is important that you sanitize high-touch surfaces in your home. However, many of these surfaces are not ideal for direct spraying with liquid cleaners or disinfectants. Spraying anything on your tech devices will probably damage them. Instead, you can get those wipes that are specifically designed for cleaning electronic devices. Containing alcohol, these wipes are able to rid surfaces of harmful bacteria.
When cleaning high-touch surfaces around the house, it is helpful to use a microfiber cloth and spray your chosen disinfectant solution on the cloth, and not directly on the light switch or doorknob. There are many suitable commercial cleaning solutions that state that they are anti-bacterial and are suited for your home’s plastic or other durable surfaces. Remember also to not use harsh chemicals on painted surfaces, wood, or natural stone to avoid damaging them.
In addition to cleaning high-touch surfaces, the CDC also recommends washing your hands frequently and cleaning all surfaces in your home with a disinfectant appropriate for the different surfaces you are cleaning. Be sure to also have proper ventilation and to always follow the label directions regardless of what cleaning agent you use. Taking these extra precautions can help keep your home germ-free during the flu season and all year round.
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