Many people are already quite aware that regular general cleaning is a suitable procedure to keep your Gainesville rental home a safe place to be during flu season. But certainly, cleaning just the perceivable dirt may not be enough. Doorknobs, light switches, computer keyboards, smartphones, tablets, television remotes, and game controllers are all rather easy to disregard when it comes to cleaning the house. If you are not sanitizing them often, these things may accumulate more harmful bacteria on them than, say, your toilet.
Common Dirty Devices
It is highly recommended that you regularly clean your smartphone, tablet, keyboard, mouse, television remote, and gaming controller. Just because of how often these electronic devices are touched each day, specifically like phones, controllers, and remotes, they can have ten times the amount of bacteria found on other surfaces in your home! Think about it carefully: every time you touch something and then touch your phone or computer keyboard, you’ve transferred bacteria from one surface to the other.
The more often you touch a particular surface, the more bacteria will accumulate there, promptly turning out to be a greater health hazard. During flu season, it’s definitely very easy to collect germs and quite inadvertently pass them along to others by sharing devices, controllers – even the TV remote. This is what makes cleaning your dirty devices so crucial. If you aren’t cleaning your devices on a daily basis or after every use, the potentialities are that they may perhaps get you or your family sick.
High-Touch Surfaces
Have you ever tried to keep on top of whatever thing you touch around the house each day? You may be caught by surprise! High-touch surfaces, precisely, are areas that get a lot of use, however, they may not make it onto your general cleaning lists. For instance, doorknobs, cabinet handles, window blind controls, and light switches are all touched daily, and often, indeed many times a day.
If you haven’t wiped these surfaces down with a germ-killing solution, the odds are that they are harboring high levels of harmful bacteria. One study cited that light switches often have 200 bacteria per square inch, while most toilets have 20 on average.
During the flu season, it’s, in particular, critical to sanitize high-touch surfaces in your home. Nevertheless, a lot of these surfaces cannot just be easily sprayed with liquid cleaners or disinfectants. Spraying anything on your tech devices will ruin them. Hence, you can purchase wipes that are designed and aimed to clean electronic devices. These wipes commonly contain alcohol, which will kill harmful bacteria.
For other high-touch surfaces around the house, opt for using a microfiber cloth and spray a disinfectant solution on the cloth, not directly on the light switch or doorknob. A commercial cleaning solution that especially states it will kill bacteria will definitely work best for your home’s plastic or other durable surfaces. Just don’t utilize harsh chemicals on painted surfaces, wood, or natural stone, as the chemicals will cause destruction to these areas.
Not only high-touch surfaces, but the CDC also urges washing your hands frequently and cleaning all surfaces in your home with a disinfectant appropriate for the type of surface you’re cleaning. Just take care to have proper ventilation and pay attention to the label directions no matter what cleaning agent you choose to use. By taking these additional precautions, you can keep your home as germ-free as possible during flu season and all year round.
Are you in the market for a new rental home? Contact Real Property Management Diversified to speak at length with one of our Gainesville property managers or view our listings online.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
