The Must-Read Guide to Home Disinfecting

home disinfecting

If you’re concerned about keeping your family safe and healthy after the cold or flu hits your home, you’re not alone. When illness hits your home, all you want to do is clean and sanitize everything to keep the rest of your family from getting sick too.

When someone in your home is sick, or if there’s a flu bug running through your child’s class at school, don’t let worry ruin your life. Instead, you can disinfect your home to keep sickness from disrupting your plans. 

What are the proper ways to disinfect your home so that it is actually germ-free? How can you keep your family from spreading germs via the surfaces in your house? Here’s what you need to know about hom e disinfecting. 

Finding the Best Disinfectant Spray for Home Use

If you choose the right cleaning products to disinfect your home, a lot of the work is already done for you. There are a few things to consider when finding the right spray for your house.  

First, read the label, and check the contact time; how long does it take for the disinfectant to kill all the germs? Proper contact time is key to killing germs where they live. The label also will tell you if that is the right cleaner for your surfaces. Wood, marble and granite all can be damaged if you pick the wrong cleaner, so make sure your cleaning products are safe for all the surfaces for which you plan to use them.

Do you want to use an all-natural cleaner in your home, you can kill most (but maybe not all) germs with an all-natural antibacterial cleaner if you’re worried about the kinds of chemicals you’ll find in household cleaners. 

You’ll also want to make sure that you use the right cleaning tools for each product you select. Do you need rubber gloves? Can you use paper towels, or does a certain product require a rag or sponge? Is it safe to use in your home if you have young children or a family member with breathing issues?

When in doubt about which products will kill germs, you always can consult this list of the best disinfecting cleaners to use in 2020 .

The Best Steps for Disinfecting Your Home After Flu Hits

If someone in your house falls ill with the flu or any virus for that matter, you can help keep the sickness from spreading by disinfecting your home during and after the time they are sick. 

What can you do to keep the flu from taking over your home? Here are a few tips to keep things sanitized :

  • Quarantine the sick person as much as you can.
  • Disinfect any surfaces that the sick person might have touched and anywhere respiratory droplets (from sneezes, coughs or heavy breathing) may have landed by using an antibacterial cleaner or a solution of bleach in water . Don’t forget about cabinet pulls, light switches and door handles—and everything in the bathroom.
    • You can trust surfaces to be disinfected when they remain visibly damp with disinfecting cleaner for four minutes and then dried. 
  • Use paper towels or wipes with bleach cleaner for cleaning instead of using a sponge, which can spread germs from one high-touch area to the next.
  • Disinfect all surfaces in the bathroom, including the countertops, faucet, and toilet seat and handle.
  • Sanitize all your laundry, including clothes, bed linens, hand towels, bath towels and kitchen towels.

After someone gets very sick, you also may consider using a disinfecting fogger . You place the fogger in a vacant room, and just a few hours after starting it, the surfaces in your room are disinfected, with no moisture or residue. Don’t forget to get your pets out of the room first!

home disinfecting

How to Disinfect Linens

When someone has been ill, you really should disinfect the linens throughout your house. These linens should be disinfected regularly too. You already should be washing your bed linens once per week, but it’s a good practice to disinfect them occasionally and always after someone has been sick.

How can you disinfect linens to ensure they’re fully germ-free? Here are the steps you need to take:

  • Remove linens from your bed. Don’t forget about pillowcases and shams as well as pillows, sheets, blankets and comforters, and sort them according to color. White linens that can withstand bleach should be washed separately.
  • Do not crowd your washer. Split things up into multiple loads if you need to so that everything is thoroughly cleaned.
  • Wash your linens using the hot wash/cold wash rinse cycles to disinfect linens. Heavy blankets or thick sheets will need to be washed using a heavy wash setting. 
  • Pour in the right amount of detergent (and bleach if you are washing white linens), and start the machine as you normally would.
  • Dry all linens on the hottest setting possible for at least 60 minutes.
  • After the dryer completes its cycle, let the linens sit for 20 minutes or more to kill any remaining bacteria.

You also may want to add one cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle. Vinegar can help kill germs and deodorizes linen, which is a strong indication that germs are dead too. It should be noted here that vinegar is not an EPA-approved disinfectant, but it can do a great job taking care of some of the germs in loads of laundry that can’t be bleached, and it also acts as a natural fabric softener.  Here are a few other l aundry additives that kill germs that you might want to try. 

Do you need professional help with your home disinfecting needs after the flu? Or maybe you just need some extra help keeping germs at bay each week? 

Cimara Cleaning Services is a professional house cleaning company that can help you disinfect your entire home. 

Our entire team at Cimara Cleaning has been expertly trained in all the proper techniques , which means that when you’re sick, you can leave the disinfecting to us. Let our long list of satisfied clients win you over. We don’t leave any part of your home go untouched by our safe, effective disinfectants.

Bringing in the professionals for your house disinfecting needs will let you move on with your life after the cold or flu. You’ll be able to rest easy, knowing your home has been cleaned and sanitized from top to bottom. 

home disinfecting
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