Lots of people understand that regular cleaning is an effective way to keep your rental home safe during flu season. But, truth be told, cleaning just the observable dirt may not be entirely 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 contain more harmful bacteria than your toilet.
How dirty are standard handheld devices?
It is seriously recommended that you regularly clean your smartphone, tablet, keyboard, mouse, television remote, and gaming controller. Given that these electronic devices are touched so often each day, particularly phones, controllers, and remotes, they can have ten times the amount of bacteria found on other surfaces in your home!
Seriously consider 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 frequently you touch a particular surface, the more bacteria will collect there, speedily becoming a serious health hazard. For the duration of flu season, it’s easy to pick up germs and inadvertently pass them along to others by sharing devices, controllers – even the TV remote. This is what makes cleaning your dirty devices so imperative. If you aren’t cleaning your devices every day or after every use, the chances are definitely high that they might get you or your family sick.
Surfaces you touch every day
Have you ever tried to closely observe everything you touch around the house daily? You may be so surprised! High-touch surfaces, particularly, get a lot of use and still may not make it onto your general cleaning lists. For example, doorknobs, cabinet handles, window blind controls, and light switches are all touched daily, at times a lot of times daily.
If you haven’t wiped these surfaces down with a germ-killing solution, they may likely be harboring high levels of harmful bacteria. Studies have found these surfaces constantly contain far more bacteria per square inch than your toilet.
Sanitizing high-touch surfaces in your home is especially vital for the duration of flu season. With that said, these surfaces cannot completely be sprayed with liquid cleaners or disinfectants. Spraying anything on your tech devices will certainly destroy them. On the contrary, you can acquire and use wipes designed to clean electronic devices. These wipes frequently contain alcohol, which kills harmful bacteria.
For other high-touch surfaces around the house, make use of a microfiber cloth and spray a disinfectant solution on the cloth, not bluntly on the light switch or doorknob. A commercial cleaning solution that specifically indicates 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.
Including high-touch surfaces, the CDC recommends washing your hands frequently and cleaning all surfaces in your home with a disinfectant perfect for the type of surface you’re cleaning. Just be watchful of having proper ventilation and abide by the label directions for whichever cleaning agent you select. By taking these extra protective measures, you can keep your home as germ-free as possible during flu season and all throughout the year.
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