10 Ways to Sanitize Your House
There are a lot of things to clean in a normal home being lived in by people. Many important things are often overlooked when it comes to deep cleaning or even not-so-deep cleaning. Here are 10 of them.
1. Your kitchen sponge or dish washing cloth.
Every time you wipe your counters, spray your sponge with a little anti-bacterial spray cleaner, or you can use a mixture of hydrogen peroxide or bleach with water. Suggest you keep a spray bottle with the cleaner or water/peroxide or water/bleach mixture and keep it handy by the faucet. The peroxide smell is less offensive to me, but you might prefer the anti-bacterial cleaner.
If this isn’t enough to keep your sponge clean and fresh, throw it in a load of wash next time you wash with hot water and bleach and repeat periodically.
2. Your kitchen counters need to be sanitized in the same way, nearly every time you wipe them. Use the same cleaners as in #1.
3. Weekly, or so, you need to wipe off all the faucet handles in the house with the same cleaners, or you can use Pine Sol if you prefer.
4. Doorknobs and door handles need to wiped and sanitized weekly. These get heavy use and are often overlooked. Don’t forget the outdoor handles! Make sure it is a cleaner that doesn’t damage the finish.
5. Remote controls to TV’s and other appliances need to be wiped off with Windex or similar cleaner, weekly or according to use. Spray the cloth rather than directly on the remote control.
6. Ditto for keyboards, telephones and on-off buttons to other appliances that are used regularly.
7. Toilet tanks should have about ½ cup of bleach or hydrogen peroxide poured in the water weekly or so. You shouldn’t need any other toilet bowl cleaners and it will keep the water holes open and free running.
8. Toothbrushes. If you don’t throw them away on a regular basis, they need to be soaked in a weak bleach solution (about 10 parts water to 1 part bleach), or peroxide, weekly or so.
9. Pillowcases that you put your face on every night should be changed and washed every 3 days or so. This will keep the bacteria down to help prevent colds, flu, and acne! If you have pillows in your living rooms that you put your face on, they also need to washed, or dry cleaned periodically to keep down bacteria.
10. Clean the drain in your shower with the same bleach and water or peroxide and water (50/50) solution to keep it clean and free running.
One more as a bonus! Wash your underwear, bed linens and towels in hot water. If they are white you can add a little bleach or peroxide to keep them white (read the washing instructions on the label to make sure they are o.k. to bleach and use hot water) and to kill bacteria.
Enjoy your clean and sanitized house! A clean house is therapeutic!