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How to clean your home effectively

As many of us now have no option other than to spend more time at home, it’s important to keep up good home hygiene habits to stay healthy, especially if someone in your household is self-isolating due to Coronavirus.

A thorough deep clean and de-clutter of your home may also improve your mood, helping you feel more focused and stay motivated whilst creating a calm and stress free environment.

We have pulled together a few helpful tips according to which.co.uk, on what to focus on when cleaning and what products are effective.

Focus on the high traffic areas that enable pathogens to spread around the home. These include frequent touch areas such as:

Door handles and light switches

Appliance handles and dials – e.g. kettle handle, fridge door, oven and microwave dials

TV remotes

Shared computer equipment such as keyboards

Toilet and tap handles

Food prep areas and bathroom surfaces

You also need to think about things that can spread germs, such as sponges and cleaning cloths.

Professor Sally Bloomfield, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, notes that, rather than just cleaning the house, the goal is: ‘to prevent the person-to-person spread of infection, which requires good respiratory and hand hygiene [washing hands and covering your mouth and nose if you sneeze or cough] and good hygiene of contact surfaces.’

What cleaning products work against coronavirus?

As with cleaning your hands, good old soap and water are actually some of the most effective options for cleaning surfaces. Dr Primrose Freestone, Associate Professor in Clinical Microbiology at the University of Leicester, explains: ‘COVID-19 is an enveloped RNA (ribonucleic acid) virus, meaning that proteins and lipids are part of its structure. Therefore, detergents by themselves – such as soap and even washing-up liquid – work very well at disrupting the virus structure by dissolving the lipids, which in turn inactivates the virus by stopping it binding to our cells.’ The alcohol in hand sanitiser works in a similar way, by dissolving lipids in the virus coating (as long as it’s 60% alcohol).

If you’re buying specific disinfectant products like spray or wipes, check first if they say they work against viruses as well as bacteria. A lot of these products are in high demand right now and might be out of stock, so it’s not worth stressing yourself out trying to hunt them down, as soapy water and bleach or alcohol-based cleaners will also work. Wash reusable cloths and tea towels at 60 degrees or more between uses, and change frequently.

Helpful tip… You can also put washing up sponges on a hot cycle in the dishwasher.

Read the full article here…

We have also put together a handy after-care guide with tips and tricks for you to keep your carpet clean and looking fresh.