If you’ve been sick and want to avoiding spreading your illness to others in your home or want to be sure you don’t catch your own sickness again, it’s important that you clean your home properly.
We’ve put together a guide for cleaning your home after you’ve been sick so that you can make sure you take the proper precautions to keep yourself and others in your home healthy.
Clean Your Bathroom
The bathroom has got to be the one spot in your home that harbors the most germs. After all, this is one of the places you spend a lot of time in when sick, and where it finally works its way out. So once you’re better, you’ll need to focus quite a bit of time and energy on sanitizing this space.
Make sure you:
- Disinfect all surfaces, especially toilets, faucets, and countertops
- Scrub your bathtub or shower
- Empty and clean your garbage cans
- Wash all hand and body towels on the hottest setting possible
- Swap out your toothbrush for a brand new one
Clean Your Kitchen
Although you may not have spent much time in the kitchen while sick, it’s still important to give it a good deep clean to make sure all the germs and bacteria are eliminated.
Don’t forget to:
- Disinfect faucets and countertops
- Scrub the sink
- Replace your sponge
- Wash hand and tea towels
- Disinfect cabinet and drawer handles
- Disinfect appliances (e.g., refrigerator handle, microwave handle/button, etc.)
- Clean all used dishware in the dishwasher to disinfect
- Disinfect your tables and chairs
- Empty and clean your garbage cans
Clean Your Tables
Another spot in your home that is easily overlooked but can allow germs and bacteria to thrive is your table. Not only do you touch your table frequently, but you cough over it, you come back to it often, and you set other items you’ve touched on it. And not just your kitchen table – every table in your home needs to be wiped down with a disinfectant. If your table has chairs, you should wipe those down too.
Make sure not to forget:
- Kitchen table
- Dining table
- Coffee tables
- Side tables
- Nightstands
- Desks
Clean Other Frequently Touched Areas
Any frequently touched areas in your home need to be cleaned with a disinfectant to avoid spreading your sickness to others. Places such as doorknobs and light switches often go uncleaned, but they can harbor more germs and bacteria than you’d care to know!
Using a disinfecting spray with a cloth or a disinfecting wipe, head through every room of your house and wipe all doorknobs, light switches, and anything else that is often touched.
These frequently touched areas should be getting cleaned regularly due to their build up. You can always hire a cleaning company and there are multitude to choose from such as Merry Maids, Imagine Maids, Maids Pro, and so on. But very few cleaning companies do a great job or put an emphasis on thoroughly cleaning frequently touched areas. When hiring a company, make sure to go through a full vetting process to understand their cleaning process and what they do and emphasize.
Clean All Remotes, Phones, and Other Electronics
Probably even more so than your doorknobs and light switches, electronics are some of the most touched items in your entire home. Using your electronics without cleaning them properly can spread your illness to others or even cause you to become sick again.
Add a few drops of 70% isopropyl alcohol to some water, then wipe down your items using a damp microfiber cloth. Be sure not to use a higher concentration of alcohol because it can ruin the finish on your electronics. Then, dry your item with a second cloth quickly before the liquid has a chance to damage anything.
Make sure to clean each of the following:
- Phones
- Television remotes
- Video game controllers
- Laptops
- Keyboards
- Mice
Change Your Bedding
Once you’ve recovered from being sick, you’ll need to change your entire set of bed linens. Not only does your head and face come into constant contact with your pillowcase each night, but you also tend to sweat a bit when you’re sick.
Strip the bed and allow the mattress to air out for a few hours while you wash your sheets. Make sure to wash them on the hottest setting to properly disinfect them. You may even want to use bleach if your sheets allow it. Remake your bed with your freshly washed sheets or with an extra set.
Clean Your Floors
Although floors aren’t the main culprit in spreading illnesses, they can still harbor the same germs, especially if you’ve been coughing or sneezing, or worse, vomiting. If your floors have been soiled, clean them up immediately with a disinfectant. Otherwise, make sure to vacuum all floors and mop any hard floors.
Wash your Laundry
Wash all clothes that were worn while sick in a separate load on the highest heat setting possible without ruining them, then dry them on a high heat setting as well. If your clothes cannot withstand a high temperature, purchase a laundry sanitizer to add to your normal laundry detergent.
Clean Toys
If your kids have been ill, it’s important to clean any toys they played with so they don’t get reinfected. You can use a disinfecting wipe on larger plastic toys, while smaller ones can often be placed in the top rack of the dishwasher. Wooden toys should be wiped with a disinfecting wipe.
Stuffed animals and other plush toys can’t be wiped with a disinfecting wipe, but they should still be cleaned. If the toys aren’t too fragile, pop them in the washing machine. If a toy can’t be washed, you might be able to put it in the dryer on a high heat setting to kill the germs.
Making sure your home is safe and sanitary after you’ve been ill is the key to keeping others in your home healthy. Make sure to clean each of these items for the best chance at avoiding spreading your illness or reinfecting yourself.
GET UPDATES
No charge. Unsubscribe anytime.
GET UPDATES
No charge. Unsubscribe anytime.