With a global pandemic upon us, there’s never been more incentive to embark on some rigorous quarantine cleaning! After all, there have been almost 6 million cases to date in the US, which means it’s in everybody’s interest to keep their homes virus-free.

Disinfecting your property on a regular basis is one of the best ways to do it. Sanitizing your surfaces will kill any spores that are living on them and help prevent the spread of the virus as a result. The chances of you or your family contracting it fall in the process!

But what steps do you need to take to reap those rewards? Or, to put it another way, how can you clean your house effectively in these unprecedented times?

Want to find out the answers to these questions? Keep reading to discover 7 top tips for cleaning at home during COVID-19.

1. Understand the Difference Between Cleaning and Disinfecting

Our first suggestion is to do with definitions. Protecting your house against COVID-19 requires more than the usual clean-up.

It has to be disinfected too.

Unfortunately, day-to-day cleaning only removes germs and other contaminants from the home. But you have to actually kill the pathogens that might be scattered throughout your home to stop the spread of the virus.

The fact of the matter is that cleaning and disinfecting your surfaces are both important! Doing them on a regular basis is the best way to stay safe.

2. Focus On Specific Areas

Not every surface in your house is made equal in terms of COVID-19 transmission. There are certain areas that are at more risk than others.

Think about your kitchen counters, dining room table, toilet flushes, faucets, and light switches. These places get touched a lot through the day, right? That means they’re more likely to harbor harmful bacteria and, of course, virus pathogens.

As you’d expect, these ‘high-touch’ locations demand more attention than low-traffic ones when it comes to cleaning. Wash them down thoroughly with warm water and then use a high-quality disinfectant to get rid of any remaining spores. That should do the trick!

3. Clean More Often

We know, cleaning isn’t most peoples’ idea of fun. It’s time-consuming, arduous, and there are countless things you’d rather do with your time.

That’s why (under ordinary circumstances) the majority of us do the bare minimum we can get away with! We might give a cursory dusting on a Saturday, a light vacuuming on Sunday, and wipe down the kitchen counters when the mood takes us.

However, these aren’t ordinary circumstances!

With a global pandemic on our hands, we all need to step up our usual cleaning routines. With peoples’ lives on the line, it’s more important than ever to clean our homes more often and thoroughly than ever before.

4. Choose Cleaning Products Wisely

With so much cleaning going on, you’d do well to stock up on cleaning products too. Having a steady supply of disinfectant sprays and wipes should ensure you’re never caught wanting.

That being said, it’s worth noting that not all of these products have proven effective against COVID-19. Make sure you purchase ones (like these) that’ll actually do the intended job! Anything else may leave your home looking cleaner than ever before, but it could still be harboring the virus.

5. Make a Plan

Cleaning your whole house of potential pathogens can feel like a daunting task. With so much to do, it can be hard to know where to start (and even harder to sum up the motivation to do it!).

That’s where having a cleaning plan can come in handy. Rather than setting out to do it all at once, create a schedule that divides the chores out throughout the week.

Look at your standard week, consider how much time you have available, and set out your cleaning jobs accordingly. For example, Monday could be your kitchen day, Tuesday could be the bathroom, and so on. This should ensure you cover the entire house without missing anything out.

Be sure to remember those high-touch areas though! Allocate time in your plan to clean and disinfect them every day.

6. Remember to Wash Your Hands

Deep cleaning your house from top to bottom is all well and good. But the benefits will be short-lived if you don’t get into the habit of washing your hands!

You need to wash them with soap and water (or hand sanitizer) for 20 seconds or so whenever you: move from place to place, go outside and come back indoors, blow your nose, sneeze or cough. Fail, and you could end up transmitting the virus straight back onto your newly sanitized surfaces.

Save yourself the hassle of re-cleaning the house by washing your hands as much as possible.

7. Be Sensible With Sick People

Another possible cleaning hurdle to overcome is if/when somebody in the household develops the virus. All of a sudden, keeping everything clean becomes even harder (and more important to boot!).

In an ideal world, they’d have their own separate bedroom and bathroom to use. You could then steer clear of this part of the house and give them their own cleaning products with which to disinfect their living areas.

However, if you don’t have that luxury, then do what you can to:

  1. Limit your exposure to the ill person,
  2. Clean up shared spaces after every use, and
  3. Get them to disinfect everything they come into contact with (where possible).

Don’t Forget These Quarantine Cleaning Tips

With a global pandemic causing chaos around the nation, cleaning your house has never been more important! Thankfully, with lockdown restrictions keeping us inside with little to do, there’s plenty of opportunities to get stuck in and clear out those nasty COVID-19 pathogens.

As we’ve seen, though, it’s vital to go about the task in the right way too. The fact that stubborn pathogens are in play means you need the right approach and products to keep your home virus-free. Hopefully, the tips in this post will help you do exactly that!

Do you want professional support with your quarantine cleaning? Contact us today to see how we can be of service!