It is evident that most people understand well that regular cleaning is a sure way to keep your rental home safe during flu season. But, in actuality, cleaning just the conspicuous dirt may not be suitable 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 hold more harmful bacteria than your toilet.
How dirty are standard handheld devices?
It is seriously suggested that you regularly clean your smartphone, tablet, keyboard, mouse, television remote, and gaming controller. Considering that these electronic devices are touched so often each day, definitely phones, controllers, and remotes, they can have ten times the amount of bacteria found on other surfaces in your home!
Consider it: by the 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 collect there, easily becoming a serious health hazard. Along the whole length of flu season, it’s easy to pick up germs and by chance pass them along to others by sharing devices, controllers – even the TV remote. This is what makes cleaning your dirty devices crucial. If you aren’t cleaning your devices every day or after every use, the chances are high that they might get you or your family sick.
Surfaces you touch every day
Have you ever tried to keep a close watch on everything you touch around the house daily? You may be taken aback! High-touch surfaces, definitely, get a lot of use except they may not make it onto your general cleaning lists. For illustration, doorknobs, cabinet handles, window blind controls, and light switches are all touched daily, and from time to time, a whole lot of times daily.
If you haven’t wiped these surfaces down with a germ-killing solution, they are, in all likelihood, harboring high levels of harmful bacteria. Studies have found these surfaces conventionally contain far more bacteria per square inch than your toilet.
Sanitizing high-touch surfaces in your home is especially vital within the period of flu season. One thing though, these surfaces cannot directly be sprayed with liquid cleaners or disinfectants. Spraying anything on your tech devices will destroy them. As an alternative, you can use wipes designed to clean electronic devices. These wipes normally contain alcohol, which kills harmful bacteria.
For other high-touch surfaces around the house, apply a microfiber cloth and spray a disinfectant solution on the cloth, not squarely on the light switch or doorknob. A commercial cleaning solution that specifically states 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.
Together with high-touch surfaces, the CDC recommends washing your hands frequently and cleaning all surfaces in your home with a disinfectant excellent for the type of surface you’re cleaning. Just be on the lookout to have proper ventilation and heed carefully the label directions, disregarding what cleaning agent you take on. By taking these extra precautionary actions, 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 discuss with one of our property managers servicing Gainesville and nearby or see for yourself our available listings.
Originally Published on November 26, 2021
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