Unmistakably, most people ascertain that regular cleaning is a useful way to keep your rental home safe during flu season. Having said that, cleaning just the most obvious dirt may not be quite enough. Doorknobs, light switches, computer keyboards, smartphones, tablets, television remotes, and game controllers are easy to miss when cleaning the house. If you are not sanitizing them regularly, they may harbor more harmful bacteria than your toilet.
How dirty are standard handheld devices?
It is especially suggested that you regularly clean your smartphone, tablet, keyboard, mouse, television remote, and gaming controller. On the grounds that these electronic devices are touched so often each day, specifically phones, controllers, and remotes, they can have ten times the amount of bacteria found on other surfaces in your home!
Just think about it: once you touch something and then touch your phone or computer keyboard, you’ve transferred bacteria from one surface to the other.
The more repeatedly you touch a particular surface, the more bacteria will collect there, immediately becoming a serious health hazard. Through the course of flu season, it’s easy to pick up germs and automatically pass them along to others by sharing devices, controllers – and even the TV remote. This is what makes cleaning your dirty devices focal. If you aren’t cleaning your devices every day or after every use, the chances are great that they might get you or your family sick.
Surfaces you touch every day
Have you ever tried to keep watch on everything you touch around the house daily? You may be in amazement! High-touch surfaces, absolutely, get a lot of use but certainly may not make it onto your general cleaning lists. Take one example, doorknobs, cabinet handles, window blind controls, and light switches are all touched daily, probably numerous times daily.
If you haven’t wiped these surfaces down with a germ-killing solution, they are conceivably harboring high levels of harmful bacteria. Studies have found these surfaces frequently contain far more bacteria per square inch than your toilet.
Sanitizing high-touch surfaces in your home is especially pertinent within flu season. Be that as it may, these surfaces cannot outrightly be sprayed on with liquid cleaners or disinfectants. Spraying anything on your tech devices will damage them. In lieu of this, you can have just use wipes designed to clean electronic devices. These wipes normally contain alcohol, which kills harmful bacteria.
For other high-touch surfaces around the house, apply a microfiber cloth and spray a disinfectant solution on the cloth, not downright on the light switch or doorknob. A commercial cleaning solution that specifically conveys it will kill bacteria will work for your home’s plastic or other durable surfaces. Just don’t use harsh chemicals on painted surfaces, wood, or natural stone, as the chemicals will damage these areas.
With high-touch surfaces, the CDC recommends washing your hands frequently and cleaning all surfaces in your home with a disinfectant that’s just right for the type of surface you’re cleaning. Just be aware to have proper ventilation and bear in mind to follow the label directions, it does not matter what cleaning agent you get. By taking these extra cautionary provisions, you can keep your home as germ-free as possible during flu season and during the whole year.
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Originally Published on November 26, 2021
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