Introduction
The pandemic has made everyone more conscious about hygiene and daily cleanups. However, disinfecting all surfaces in your home and office at all times isn’t practical. You can fix that by searching for “home cleaning services near me” and hiring professionals for the job. If you insist on disinfecting all those surfaces yourself, here’s what you can do.
The Surfaces
- Viruses and germs are invisible – Before you start disinfecting your home and office it’s important to understand why you need to do that. Some people treat it as a chore instead of understanding why it needs to be done. You don’t want to do a shoddy job here since it puts you and everyone else’s health at risk.
It’s important to note that even if a surface appears to be clean, it isn’t. Dirt isn’t the only filth that leads to bad hygiene and illnesses. Instead, you are most at risk due to the invisible invaders. Most disease-causing microbes, germs, and viruses are just that – micro. You can’t see them with the naked eye even if there are billions of them on a small surface like your smartphone’s screen.
Moreover, viruses are even more deadly since they can lay dormant for a long time. While bacteria and other germs may die out in the open very quickly, viruses can survive for some time. Moreover, they have incubation periods. That means after they enter your system, they grow to a certain extent before producing any symptoms. This incubation period may be days, weeks, or even months. So even if your home or office space looks sparkly clean, it needs to be thoroughly disinfected.
- Cleaning and disinfecting are different – Most people consider cleaning as disinfecting surfaces. While they are similar in some ways, they are completely different in what they do and how they do it. The main difference between cleaning and disinfecting lies at the invisible microscopic level.
For instance, even if you physically remove germs with a rag, they are still alive on the rag unless you wash it with hot water and soap. On the other hand, when you disinfect a surface you kill most, at least more than 99 percent of germs on that surface and bring down health risks to a minimum.
While cleaning can be done with some soap and water, you need to use at least 70 percent strength alcohol or a bleach solution to disinfect a surface. As long as you use disinfectants as instructed on the container label, you can remove most of the germs. Moreover, the CDC controls disinfectants more strictly and requires the solution to kill over 99 percent of germs on a surface before the manufacturer can call their products a disinfectant. Make sure to check the CDC list before you buy a disinfectant.
- Sanitize your phones – With that out of the way, you can focus on surfaces that need to be disinfected at home and at the office. Your phone obviously makes the top of the list since it is the most intimate item you own and use extensively. To disinfect your phone, get a potent disinfectant and use cotton swabs or a paper towel to wipe down your phone with the solution.
Read the label on the disinfectant to make sure that it doesn’t damage your phone’s finish or the display. Make sure to wipe down all the surfaces thoroughly while your phone is powered off and use a cotton swab to disinfect the ports. Let the disinfectant dry out before you turn on the phone.
- Mouse and keyboard – When you’re at the office you’re mostly in front of the office computer or your laptop constantly using the mouse or trackpad along with the keyboard. Due to that high traffic, your keyboard and mouse collect a lot of germs throughout the day. Moreover, if you have sweaty palms and fingers, the germ count skyrockets.
You escalate the problem to a whole new level if you indulge in work lunches. If you have your meal in front of the computer and leave food crumbs and spill your drinks on the desk and the keyboard or mouse, you’re exposed to a high level of risk. That’s why it’s important to disinfect the mouse and keyboard regularly. Try not to have lunch over your desk since cleaning is painful and disinfecting between the small spaces of the keycaps and all those crevices is a greater challenge.
- Doorknobs and handles – Both at your home and your office, doorknobs, and handles are easily one of the most highly used surfaces. They receive a high level of traffic since people use them all the time. Fortunately, cleaning them isn’t too difficult since they have a small surface area. Make sure to wipe down handles and doorknobs with disinfectants every few hours to keep those surfaces germ free and prevent cross-contamination among your family members or colleagues.
- Disinfect appliances – Appliances also get a lot of attention at both the office and your home. At home, everyone uses different remotes for the TV, AC, and other appliances. A great way to ease your disinfecting task is by using a universal remote or using a voice assistant if your appliances support it. Modern appliances also come with apps for your phone that allow you full control. Try to use these measures as much as possible to reduce cross-contamination.
On the other hand, at offices, you’ll find yourself frequenting the pantry, microwave, and coffee machine. Those appliances get a lot of attention due to obvious reasons. Make sure to sanitize and disinfect frequent touchpoints on those appliances and storage spaces as much as possible. You can also keep a spray bottle of disinfectant along with paper towels so that your employees can disinfect the surfaces after using the appliances.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are plenty of surfaces you need to clean and disinfect every day. It can’t be quick or effortless no matter how optimized you get at the job. Fortunately, you can search for “home cleaning services near me” and hire professionals to do this job for you.
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