Cleaning and Disinfecting Tips on how to Kill Household Germs
Trying to combat household germs seems to be an endless battle and now more than ever, it is an important time to kill household germs as they are everywhere and unlike us, they do not get tired and, keep multiplying.
However, do not despair, we are here to give you some top tips and tricks to help you with this task.
Keeping household bacteria at bay prevents infectious illnesses from spreading.
Here you will find some useful guidance to help you kill germs by focusing your cleaning in places where they prevail the most.
- Germs are everywhere
Germs are spread out through your house, but they concentrate and multiply in areas that are used and touched the most such as light switches, door handles, TV remote controls or your mobile phones. Unfortunately, these touchpoints are sometimes overlooked in our weekly cleaning.
Kitchens and toilets are high risk areas too. Interestingly, one study found the kitchen sink had more bacteria than the toilet or kitchen bin. The only bathroom hot spot in the study’s top 10 was the toothbrush holder because when we flush a toilet it sends a fine spray of mist onto them and other surfaces. This is why it is important to protect your toothbrush with a cap and put your toilet seat lid down before flushing.
- What you will need to kill germs
Cleaning with soap and hot water removes dirt and some grime and even kills some germs. However, disinfecting high risk areas with a cleaner-disinfectant is the best solution and you can use it for most bathroom surfaces and kitchen countertops.
Please remember to open some windows and wear gloves when you use any products with bleach.
Please remember to never mix bleach with vinegar nor ammonia.
You can obviously use store-bought disinfectants or you can use your own homemade one. There are a few options using vinegar, lemon, baking soda or bleach, depending on which surfaces you want to clean.
You can make your own cheap and effective disinfectant: mix 3 teaspoons of bleach in 4 litres of water. Apply your homemade disinfectant and leave it for 3-5 minutes, then rinse and let it air-dry to save you some time to do other disinfecting tasks.
- 10 Top Tips to Kill Germs Around the House
You will make your job easier and quicker if you get yourself into a routine of cleaning tasks on a daily basis, so when it comes to your weekly clean, you will have saved yourself some time and made your job easier.
Daily Cleaning Germs
- Start in the kitchen and clean and disinfect countertops, chopping boards, sink, fridge/freezer handles, cupboard handles. Clean any spillages on the floor so they don’t attract more bacteria. Clean hob and oven areas including buttons and surfaces appropriately.
- Clean with dishcloths you can put in the washing machine as soon as you have finished and wash with hot water. Replace dish cloths and towels daily. Disinfect sponges if you do not replace them every day.
- Clean and sanitise the bathroom sink, handles and toilet bowl (we advise you to bin the cloths you used to clean this area or wash these cloths separately in the highest temperature cycle possible to kill all bacteria). Keep your bathroom well ventilated. To get further advice on how to clean your toilet bowl and remove limescale have a look at our how to remove limescale post.
- Empty bathroom bins and kitchen bins. Clean them and spritz the bins with a sanitizing spray. Put new bags in.
- If you have pets, clean their beds, blankets, bowls and toys with pet safe disinfectant.
Weekly Cleaning Germs
Follow through all the steps above and the following steps:
- In the bathroom, wash the toothbrush holder. Clean your bath tub and shower. Don’t forget to clean your shower curtain, you can wash it in the washing machine to make this task easier. If you have glass in your shower, clean this with disinfectant and wipe it dry so limescale doesn’t leave marks the glass. For further guidance on how to remove limescale, go to how to remove limescale from your showerhead
- Clean the kitchen sink strainer in the dishwasher. Keep your fridge shelves clean. Always turn off appliances before cleaning them. Clean the outside of your kettle including handle, your water jug handle, toaster, the front of your washing machine/dryer and its buttons, and, the dishwasher.
- Gather all bathroom towels and bed linen and wash them in hot water if possible. Replace with fresh linen and towels.
- Hoover all floors and mop hard floors with disinfectant.
- Disinfect all touchpoints: doors and handles/knobs, locks, keys, light switches, door handles, phones, remotes, computer keyboards & pc mouse (with an appropriate disinfectant wipe that does not contain bleach).
To help you a bit further, here are some tips on how to clean some of the areas with specific-area advice from our experts:
Light switches and plug sockets
How many times do we swich lights on and off on a daily basis? Multiply that by how many people live in your household! A lot of hands touching these areas and germs spreading and multiplying right?!
That is why these should be cleaned daily with a disinfectant.
As both of these are electrical, please do not spray anything directly on to these areas. Instead, spray once or twice on a dry cloth with some of your chosen disinfectant and wipe these areas with care.
Doors and handles
Doors and handles are what everyone touches to get in and out of the house, into the garden and from one room to another.
So, it is very important that this touchpoint is thoroughly disinfected every day.
Clean all the areas surrounding the door itself: door frame and panel, going all the way door towards the floor.
If you are like me, I pay particular attention to my front door, both indoors and exteriorly as well. I disinfect the door, handle, the doorbell and the letterbox too! A lot of different people have touched these areas and shouldn’t be forgotten.
Floors
Regular hoovering and, mopping hard floors, is extremely important to keep germs at bay. Hard flooring needs to be mopped with a disinfectant, but be mindful about the product you use, especially if you have small children or pets.
Without meaning to advertise in any way, I would like to leave you with a tip I use frequently: Fairy liquid is antimicrobial and actually very good in removing some hard stains, not only on surfaces but clothing too, I use it all the time. So, if you wish, you can mop with a bit of Fairy mixed into your hot water and that will remove most of the dirt and grime.
