Everything you need to know about disinfecting your home May 29, 2020 Share Everything you need to know about disinfecting your home There’s nothing quite like a global pandemic to bring many of our sub-standard cleaning practices to light. You clean the toilet once a week? Great. Wash your sheets once a week? Even better. How about the home telephone? Is that regularly disinfected? What about your light switches? If cleaning the latter two has never so much as crossed your mind, don’t stress. We’ve got you covered. These tips on disinfecting your home (AKA sanitising) aren’t just relevant to the Covid-19 pandemic. These tips should stay with you through regular cold and flu seasons, when someone in your house has gastro, and can be incorporated into your regular household clean, to ensure everyone is staying fit and healthy. Disinfecting vs. Cleaning It’s important to note the difference between disinfecting and cleaning. To kill germs, bacteria and any kind of virus, you don’t just want to clean these surfaces, you want to disinfect them. The difference between the two is simple – cleaning removes germs while disinfecting kills them. Whether you’re cleaning or sanitising will be determined by the products you’re using. A simple wipe with a cloth might get crumbs off the bench, but it won’t kill any germs that are lurking. Products to buy To correctly ‘disinfect’ surfaces, you should purchase products that explicitly state that they are disinfectants. Bleach or a product with at least 70 percent alcohol (the same percentage hand sanitiser requires) will do the trick. You’ll also need to wear gloves throughout the process, to avoid harsh chemicals being absorbed into the skin. Examples of suitable sanitising products – which can be purchased from most supermarkets and DIY stores – include: Earthwise Disinfectant Janola Bleach Dettol Glen 20 Disinfectant Spray Cyclone Disinfectant 5L Simple Green Antibacterial Cleaner Pine O Cleen Disinfectant Wipes How often should you disinfect How frequently you disinfect your home depends on whether or not people are sick. If people are sick, you’ll want to be disinfecting all surfaces they come into contact with (if they’re well enough, they can do this while wearing gloves). The kind of bacteria or virus lurking on your surfaces will determine how long it survives for, so it’s better to be overly-cautious than too realxed about it. If no one in the house is ill, it’s still important to incorporate sanitising practices into your regular cleaning tasks. Members of the household should also try their best not to touch their faces – particularly after touching the high-contact surfaces listed below. This will help prevent any bugs travelling from your hands to your mouth, nose and eyes if someone does happen to be ill. And remember, all of this cleaning will go to waste if you don’t diligently wash your hands. Tips for disinfecting with bleach The harsh nature of bleach can put a lot of people off when it comes to cleaning. To keep yourself safe when using it, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people using bleach: Always wear gloves. Check the bleach isn’t past its expiration date. Check the label to make sure that brand of bleach is intended for disinfecting (not all of them are). Check it can be used on the surface you’re intending to clean. Most store-bought bleaches are 4%. If this is the case, to make one litre of sanitising solution you will need to mix 25ml into 975ml of water. Leave the solution on the surface you’re cleaning for at least one minute before wiping it off. Tips for disinfecting with alternative products If you’re using a store-bought disinfectant other than bleach, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people: Always wear gloves. Follow the exact instructions listed on the product. Make sure the area you’re working in has good ventilation. Touch points you need to clean this flu season Read on for the list of high-contact touch points worth disinfecting this flu season. Remote controls: Pausing to think about the number of hands that touch the TV remote in just one day is enough to make most people squirm. It’s recommended that remote controls are cleaned monthly, or after a member of the household has been sick. This can be done gently with sanitising wipes or a small amount of disinfectant on a cloth. Tables and benchtops: Most benchtops are fine to clean with disinfectant on a microfibre cloth. Wooden tables are the exception to this, as they may be porous or have delicate seals on top of the wood. Put simply – you definitely don’t want to go tipping bleach on your dinner table! To avoid unnecessarily wearing this down your furniture you should always check product labels first. Mainstream surface disinfectants should state whether they’re safe to use on wood, and give directions for doing so. Taps: This one’s fairly straightforward. Sanitise all around the tap, and if a member of your family gets sick have them use a separate hand towel so they aren’t contaminating the shared one when they dry their hands. Door knobs: How you clean these will vary depending on the kinds of doorknobs you have in your house. If you have wooden door knobs, follow the instructions listed above for wooden tables. If they’re metal, you should be able to wipe them down the same way you would your taps, before drying them off with a clean towel or rag. Light switches: Before getting to work sanitising light switches, you may want to turn off your power, just to be safe. To start with – if you’ve got time – it’s worth giving light switches a basic clean. Dirt can build up on these surfaces over time without us ever really noticing. Once this is done, you can get to work with the disinfectant. A microfibre cloth dampened with disinfectant or a disinfecting wipe will do the job just fine. If you’re using a spray product onto the cloth, not the light switch. Then you can wipe down the switch and plate, before drying it off with a clean towel and moving onto the next one. Toilets: Hopefully you’re already doing this one on a regular basis, but if not – start disinfecting your toilet! This doesn’t mean just the bowl, either. You should be wiping disinfectant over the flusher, the tank cover and the top and sides of the lid. Sinks: Most kitchen and bathrooms sinks are made from sturdy materials that can withstand harsh chemicals. It’s for this reason that most sinks can be sanitised with either bleach or disinfectant. If you’re not sure, contact the product manufacturer for advice. Hard-backed chairs and barstools: A quick wipe over the chairs at your dining room table and any bar stools will ensure the parts of the chairs we reach for are free from unwanted germs and bacteria. Kitchen handles: In one kitchen, there are fridge/freezer handles, cabinet handles, the kettle handle, and a handle on top of your coffee tin. The more you think about it, the longer the list becomes. It’s important to disinfect all of these handles – particularly the ones that get the most action (we’re looking at you, fridge!). Landlines and shared electronics: If someone in your house has the flu, there’s a high chance your landline, cell phone or shared iPad has the flu, too. Most devices can be carefully cleaned with disinfecting wipes, but you should always check with the product’s manufacturer first. Instructions for specific brands can be found here: Apple Samsung Huawei Microsoft Surface Share Previous articleNext article