Noticeably, most people perceive that regular cleaning is the right course of action to keep your rental home safe during flu season. That being said, cleaning just the unconcealed dirt may not be completely enough. Doorknobs, light switches, computer keyboards, smartphones, tablets, television remotes, and game controllers are easy to miss when cleaning the house. If you are not sanitizing them regularly, they may retain more harmful bacteria than your toilet.
How dirty are standard handheld devices?
It is strongly suggested that you regularly clean your smartphone, tablet, keyboard, mouse, television remote, and gaming controller. Because of the fact that these electronic devices are touched so often each day, namely phones, controllers, and remotes, they can have ten times the amount of bacteria found on other surfaces in your home!
View it this way: assuming you touch something and then touch your phone or computer keyboard, you’ve transferred bacteria from one surface to the other.
The more frequently you touch a particular surface, the more bacteria will collect there, straight away becoming a serious health hazard. Over flu season, it’s easy to pick up germs and blindly pass them along to others by sharing devices, controllers – even the TV remote. This is what makes cleaning your dirty devices integral. If you aren’t cleaning your devices every day or after every use, the chances are rather high that they might get you or your family sick.
Surfaces you touch every day
Have you ever tried to keep a watch of everything you touch around the house daily? You may be appalled! High-touch surfaces, specifically, get a lot of use but, as a matter of fact, may not make it onto your general cleaning lists. Such as doorknobs, cabinet handles, window blind controls, and light switches are all touched daily, a few times plenty of times daily.
If you haven’t wiped these surfaces down with a germ-killing solution, they are plausibly harboring high levels of harmful bacteria. Studies have found these surfaces commonly contain far more bacteria per square inch than your toilet.
Sanitizing high-touch surfaces in your home is especially pertinent upon flu season. However, these surfaces cannot just be directly sprayed with liquid cleaners or disinfectants. Spraying anything on your tech devices will damage them. Alternatively, you can apply wipes designed to clean electronic devices. These wipes in general contain alcohol, which kills harmful bacteria.
For other high-touch surfaces around the house, put into service a microfiber cloth and spray a disinfectant solution on the cloth, not straight on the light switch or doorknob. A commercial cleaning solution that specifically indicates it will kill bacteria will work for your home’s plastic or other durable surfaces. Just don’t use harsh chemicals on painted surfaces, wood, or natural stone, as the chemicals will damage these areas.
With high-touch surfaces, the CDC recommends washing your hands frequently and cleaning all surfaces in your home with a disinfectant preferable for the type of surface you’re cleaning. Just be sharp and careful to have proper ventilation and follow the label directions, never mind what cleaning agent you favor. By taking these extra preventive measures, you can keep your home as germ-free as possible during flu season and for a solid year.
Are you in the market for a new rental home? Contact Real Property Management South Orlando to consult with one of our property managers servicing Dr. Phillips and nearby or carefully examine our available listings.
Originally Published on November 26, 2021
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