It is true that most people grasp well that regular cleaning is an efficient way to keep your rental home safe during flu season. But, in truth, cleaning just the noticeable dirt may not be sufficient 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 retain more harmful bacteria than your toilet.
How dirty are standard handheld devices?
It is really suggested that you regularly clean your smartphone, tablet, keyboard, mouse, television remote, and gaming controller. Because of the fact that these electronic devices are touched so often each day, such as phones, controllers, and remotes, can have ten times the amount of bacteria found on other surfaces in your home!
Contemplate on it: when you touch something and then touch your phone or computer keyboard, you’ve transferred bacteria from one surface to the other.
The more frequently you touch a particular surface, the more bacteria will collect there, immediately becoming a serious health hazard. Along the length of flu season, it’s easy to pick up germs and, by chance, pass them along to others by sharing devices, controllers – even the TV remote. This is what makes cleaning your dirty devices so crucial. If you aren’t cleaning your devices every day or after every use, the chances are that they might certainly get you or your family sick.
Surfaces you touch every day
Have you ever tried to keep a close watch on everything you touch around the house daily? You may be appalled! High-touch surfaces, most of all get a lot of use, but, in reality, may not make it onto your general cleaning lists. Take for example, doorknobs, cabinet handles, window blind controls, and light switches are all touched daily, and from time to time, quite a lot of times daily.
If you haven’t wiped these surfaces down with a germ-killing solution, they are most probably harboring high levels of harmful bacteria. Studies have found these surfaces definitely contain far more bacteria per square inch than your toilet.
Sanitizing high-touch surfaces in your home is especially pertinent over flu season. Still, these surfaces cannot just be sprayed with liquid cleaners or disinfectants. Spraying anything on your tech devices will actually harm them. Rather, you can just use wipes designed to clean electronic devices. These wipes generally contain alcohol, which kills harmful bacteria.
For other high-touch surfaces around the house, put into use a microfiber cloth and spray a disinfectant solution on the cloth, not straight on the light switch or doorknob. A commercial cleaning solution that specifically details 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.
In conjunction with high-touch surfaces, the CDC recommends washing your hands frequently and cleaning all surfaces in your home with a disinfectant good for the type of surface you’re cleaning. Just be aware to have proper ventilation and keep in mind to follow conscientiously the label directions; it makes no difference what cleaning agent you decide on. By taking these extra precautionary measures, you can keep your home as germ-free as possible during flu season and for a solid year.
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