Given the ongoing threat from COVID-19 and it’s variants, it’s vital that we ensure our homes are as hygienic as possible.
Here are 5 tips to help keep our families safe and healthy over the coming months.
Hands!
Top of the list as we all know (but is easy to forget), is washing our hands properly and regularly. Many surfaces we touch are sources of bacteria and we all unconsciously touch our faces a lot. One study by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene reported an average of 15.7 times per hour. A similar study of students in South Wales showed they averaged 23 touches per hour, with almost half of those involving contact between the hand and mucous from the nose, eyes and mouth. This is impossible to avoid as it’s done so subconsciously. So the answer is to get into the habit of washing our hands frequently and properly, the amount of time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice (around 20 seconds). This is especially true:
- after using the toilet or changing a nappy
- before and after handling raw foods like meat and vegetables
- before eating or handling food
- after blowing your nose, sneezing or coughing
- before and after treating a cut or wound
- after touching animals such as pets, their food and after cleaning their cages
Ventilated Home
Along with social distancing, one of the main ways to keep the virus from spreading is keeping indoor areas well-ventilated. As much as possible given the weather conditions that day, try to keep the windows open to allow fresh air from outside to circulate.
Clean home
It’s important to keep high-touch surfaces throughout our homes clean to help reduce the risk of infection. Common surfaces include door handles, chairs, tables, kitchen and bathroom surfaces, handrails, toilets, taps and light switches.
Also keep the likes of smartphones, tablets, computers, keyboards, games controllers, remote controls and well-used toys cleaned and disinfected regularly, as well. These often get neglected, with one study by the University of Arizona showing that smartphones carry 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats!
Tidy home
Reducing the amount of items you need to touch around the house – helps make cleaning a lot easier for all!
Go handsfree!
It’s worth considering homewares that don’t require you to touch them, such as sensor recycling bins and sensor soap dispensers. These come in all sorts of sleek designs, so you don’t have to compromise on style and the feature interactive motion sensors for convenient and hygienic hands-free operation.
