The COVID-19 pandemic deals a dangerous blow to everyone’s plans to keep their home clean and safe, but there are methods to keep the worst of the virus out of your home. As with any major solution to cleanliness and safety, the most important aspects are the details. Keep an eye out for extra surfaces to clean, better cleaning materials, or better purification systems to keep your air healthy. Every bit counts. Let’s dive into some coronavirus tips to better your household. You’ll find all of them to be quick and easy, building up to better cleanliness habits in the long run!
Coronavirus Tips for Recognizing Infection Signs
Before you can prepare for keeping your house safe from infection, it is good to be able to recognize the coronavirus infection signs. While most people can be asymptomatic, the sure signs of infection are a sign to act. The four major signs of an infection are:
- Dry cough
- Tiredness
- Shortness of breath
- Fever.
They can also include muscle fatigue, headaches, sore throat, conjunctivitis, diarrhea, loss of taste or smell, or a rash on skin or discoloration of fingers or toes.
The emergency symptoms are:
- trouble breathing
- persistent chest pain
- loss of speech, or movement.
If you or a loved one has any of these signs, seek emergency medical aid as soon as possible.
The Best Coronavirus Tips for Keeping Your House Clean and Safe
With social distancing measures and quarantine, most homes are now at full capacity. With kids home from school and most parents working from home, the house can potentially be a source of chaos, and cleanliness is an even higher priority.
What can you do to keep the extra germs and infections at bay? Let’s dive into these top coronavirus tips.
1. Keep Up With Personal Hygiene
Washing your hands has been the biggest phrase spread around in relation to the coronavirus. Currently, for coronavirus, WHO recommends that hands should be cleaned with soap and water for 40 to 60 seconds or with alcohol-based hand rub for 20-30 seconds.
Other forms of personal hygiene are still important, more so than ever. Keep up with all your daily routines, such as showering and wearing clean clothes.
2. Disinfect Across High-Use Surfaces
There are several areas you should be able to identify as high-use areas. Kitchen counters, any tables where you serve food, and bathroom counters are the biggest ones.
If possible, use a disinfectant after any major use to prevent any left behind germs. At the very least, a quick clean over on every major surface area will help to keep germs from spreading. The more time germs have to sit, the more they can spread to whatever comes in contact with them, including people.
There are also certain kinds of disinfectants that work best. Do not settle for cheap or easy as these disinfectants may be your most important tool against the coronavirus.
3. Dealing With Laundry the Right Way
While it may be uncertain how long COVID-19 can survive on fabric, the best way to ensure it doesn’t transfer from clothing is to clean them as much as possible.
- Change your clothes after being in a crowded area and launder your clothes often.
- Do not shake dry to avoid dispersing the virus into the air.
- Use warm water and a thorough dry cycle to help kill most of the germs on your clothes.
Also, make sure to disinfect the laundry hamper and any storage areas for dirty clothes. This goes as well for areas around your washing machines.
4. Understanding Better Food Prep and Handling
While infection cases from food are highly unlikely, food prep and handling can help to spread the coronavirus overall. Dispose of any temporary food storage items as soon as possible. Clean out and disinfect all permanent storage containers between each use.
Make sure you wash your hands for at least 20 seconds before and after working with any food. Use a cutting board for raw meats and clean it afterward. Pay close attention to expiration dates and refrigerate or freeze any open items when at all possible. Do your best to transfer cooked food onto clean plates without touching it with your hands.
5. Empty the Trash Often
Luckily, the trash can be a breeding ground for other microorganisms, but not for coronavirus. However, it is important to be careful with the things you discard in the trash, as they may be contaminated and then contaminate the trash bin. Make sure you empty all trash bins after every night, moving them out of your home.
Be mindful of plastic gloves. While they may shield your hands from exposure, if you do not remove them after every use, you only spread germs from one place to another, increasing your chances of infection.
Washing your hands instead as you move from place to place and task to task is more effective at keeping you infection-free.
How to Quarantine With Sick Family Members
If the worst happens and a family member is sick, it is important that they quarantine from the rest of the household. This means they should have a room in the house with a place to sleep and a bathroom if at all possible. No one else should enter those rooms if at all possible.
Make sure to clean those rooms as you can, but never at the risk of infection. If possible, the infected person should have their own set of cleaning supplies to keep their area clean.
Deliver food to them as you can, but avoid contact. Keep in contact with a medical professional for updates on their condition.
Keeping Your Home Safe and Your Air Clean
The most important thing to remember with anything related to the coronavirus is to not panic. There is so much going on in the world that may overwhelm you, but these coronavirus tips are also concrete actions that you can take to keep your family healthy.
Bonus Tip: Buying Air Purifiers for Better Air Quality
What all of these things miss, though, is that the coronavirus can be spread through droplets in the air. To make the biggest impact on your air quality, you will most certainly need a quality air purifier.
The closed environment of your home can build up layers of concentrated debris. Every cough can put out lots of infectious air. Medical masks are best for containing it, but for comfort around your home, the technology in air purifiers can keep you breathing cleaner than ever before.
Buying or upgrading your air purifier is a fantastic way to remove dirt, germs, and allergens from the air in your home.
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