How to stay germ-free at home
June 2nd, 2015
Something’s in the air. Not love, but something just as catchy.
GERMS.
Yes, with winter having rolled around again, Australian workplaces are being inundated with the sounds of discreet sniffles, honking nose-blowing, stifled coughs and incredulous cries of “what are you doing at work? Go home before you infect us all!”
But we’re not even safe, in our own homes. Whether you share your home with family or flatmates, one germ-infested householder can ruin winter for everyone… unless you take precautions to halt the spread of germs around your home.
Here’s how:
Sterilise your surfaces
Unfortunately for the lazy, there’s no substitute for hard work. Remember to clean off and wipe down your kitchen benches, tabletops, bathroom tiles and more to keep germs from accumulating.
Don’t just stick to the obvious surfaces either. Those nooks and crannies can be breeding grounds for gross bacteria. Look above, below and behind your furniture and the like for hidden pockets of grots like mould or mildew – these can be super-bad for you. A stick vacuum can be handy for reaching those tricky areas.
Clean deeper
If you have carpets, germs can hide deep within the fibres where your vacuum can’t always reach!
It’s also a good idea to use a carpet washer to give your carpets and rugs a deep cleansing before attacking them with your vacuum cleaner. Not only will this help eliminate more germs, but this can also help remove more ground-in dirt, giving your carpets a truly spectacular clean.
Sanitise your clothes
We all rug up during the winter to keep ourselves warm. But if you spend any time around germs (and let’s face it, if you use public transport, spend any time in an air-conditioned space, or just exist near other people, you do), your clothes are soon gonna be engulfed in swarms of bacteria, just waiting for a chance to take up permanent residency inside your body.
This makes it even more important to wash your clothes regularly during winter, using your washing machine’s hygienic antibacterial cycle to eliminate as many germs as possible.
It can be a bit tricky to stay on top of your laundry during winter, as cold and wet weather means you can’t always hang your laundry outside. This is the season when a good dryer proves its true value. Condenser dryers are especially handy, as they don’t fill your laundry room with hot steam.
One alternative to using a dryer is to set a high spin speed on your washing machine. This will remove more moisture from your clothes at the end of each cycle, which means your laundry can spend less time hanging up on an indoor line while freezing rain falls outside.
Clean the stuff you touch
Did you wash your hands before using your phone? Or the TV remote control? Our your computer keyboard?
No? *points* UNCLEAN.
Many germs are spread through contact. Sure, breathing in someone’s sneezes or hacking coughs can’t be good for you, but neither is handling objects covered in the recent fingerprints of a sick person.
So wash your hands regularly, and give your home’s most frequently-touched surfaces a good cleaning and disinfecting to prevent the spread of grossness.
Do the dishes!
What’s worse than handling a household object that’s covered in germs? Putting those objects in your mouth!
Make sure to keep your dishes clean during the winter plagues. If possible, give them a blast with the antibacterial setting of your dishwasher, otherwise give them a thorough scrubbing in the sink with soapy hot water.
Breathe free and clear
For many of us, our first instinct during winter is to lock ourselves up indoors, away from the nasty cold.
Unfortunately, when EVERYONE starts doing this, it becomes a germ problem. Just look at how quickly bugs appear to spread though offices and aeroplanes, where you have large groups of prople all sharing one another’s air.
If you and your loved ones are spending a lot of time with one another indoors, make sure to keep the filters of your reverse cycle air conditioner, heater or dehumidifier clean and disinfected.
This not only helps everyone to breathe easier (important for when cabin fever starts to set in), but it also helps to make sure that your heating and cooling appliances keep running efficiently, and at their optimal level of effectiveness.
Stay vigilant!
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