During these uncertain times, it is important to keep yourself and those around you as safe as possible. Taking extra precautions to maintain high levels of hygiene and following social distancing guidelines can help. In this blog we will be outlining expert advice to keep your home clean during lockdown.
Stay at Home
The UK government has advised citizens to only leave their home for food, health reasons or work if you cannot do so from home. If you have an essential reason to leave your home, you must stay 2 metres away from people who do not live with you. As soon as you get home, thoroughly wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water.
Even if you are not showing any signs of the virus, you can still be a carrier. Therefore we encourage you to not meet with anyone who you do not live with, including friends, family and partners.
Sanitising Touchpoints
At home, it is important to frequently sanitise touchpoints. This is especially important if you have anyone still leaving home to go to work or if anyone at home is vulnerable. Routinely go around your home and clean with disinfectant and disposable wipes popular touchpoints including (but not limited to):
- Door handles
- Light switches
- Drawer handles
- Phones
- Remote controls
- Door bells
- Taps
- Plug switches
- Stairway banisters
- Microwave buttons
For household items which can be rinsed, use a liquid soap which will loosen the microbes on the surface and then thoroughly rinse to completely clean. For household items which cannot withstand this type of cleaning, kill germs with diluted bleach or products containing alcohol. With these products, always ensure you are using them safely according to the instructions on the product label. Remember to thoroughly clean all cleaning clothes afterwards.
Supermarket Shopping and Deliveries
A&E doctor Dr Javid Abdelmoneim and virologist Dr Lisa Cross, recently featured on Channel 4 show, Coronavirus: How Clean Is Your House?
In one segment, they provided advice on how to keep clean when bringing supermarket shopping and takeaways into your home. It is important to keep in mind that the virus can reportedly survive 24 hours on cardboard and 3-5 days on plastic.
After your supermarket shop, dispose of as much outer packaging as you possibly can. This will reduce your risk if a piece of packaging has been in contact with the virus. For example, remove cereal from it’s cardboard box packaging. Either keep in the plastic bag it is packed in or transfer it to a clean storage container you already have at home. If you have bought plastic packed fruit and vegetables, store them loosely when possible. Follow these steps for the rest of your shopping and clean any packaging that cannot be disposed of just yet.
If you packed your shopping into a canvas bag, this can be cleaned in your washing machine. Otherwise, plastic bags can be wiped down with soap and water.
Always remember to wash your hands with soap and water after touching deliveries from outside.
Keep Your Home Clean During Lockdown
At Domestique we cannot stress the importance of keeping your home clean during this time. To keep safe, continue to sanitise your home regularly, only leave your home when absolutely necessary and continue to follow government and NHS advice. You can find more cleaning advice from our team here.
Stay safe.
Information Resources:
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxclm-FKQpQ
https://www.heart.co.uk/news/coronavirus/expert-reveals-unpack-shopping-takeway-covid19/