With the new dangers of the novel coronavirus lurking, many people are trying to make sure that everything inside, and coming into their homes are clean and disinfected.
But, there may be a few common areas that are easily overlooked yet may be ways that a virus can hitch a ride into your home.
Read on to make sure that you are not forgetting to clean and disinfect these 9 common items.
Opening up your front door and bringing in a package without even having to step outside seems like a safe enough thing to do.
But, considering that studies show the virus is detectable for up to 24 hours on cardboard, you may want to rethink absentmindedly grabbing that package.
Within a 24 hour period, it is likely that the package was touched and handled by at least a few different people, so giving it a quick once over with a disinfecting wipe may be the best practices for bringing in packages.
This one should be obvious, yet it is likely that many people still do not give their phones a quick wipe down after entering the house every time.
You are constantly touching your phone - and then bringing it up to your face, making phones extremely important to disinfect.
Be sure to completely take off the protective case and clean in all the groves and around the buttons to thoroughly disinfect.
Hoping on your computer or laptop may be one of the first things that most people do when returning home, so making sure that these are well disinfected on the regular is a must.
Use a disinfectant made for screens or 70% isopropyl alcohol to make sure you are not damaging your electronics in the cleaning process.
Don’t forget to wipe down the high-touch computer accessories, including your mouse and power cord, as well.
You touch your keys when you are leaving the house, getting into your car, unlocking your bike, and when you return back home, so making sure these are clean will help keep your overall home clean.
Keep a packet of disinfecting wipes handy when you are out and about to disinfect your hands and keys if you need to go somewhere, and have a key drop just inside your door so that you set them aside until you can disinfect them once returning home.
Your wallet is another item that almost feels like an extension of yourself when going out and may be overlooked when it comes to disinfection time.
You pull out your wallet at nearly every location you go to, and may be handing cash or credit cards back and forth between others, so this may be one of the most easily contaminated items you own.
Stash this along with your keys just inside your door as soon as you get home, then wash your hands and give them a once over with a disinfecting solution or wipe.
Most people don’t wash their coats and jackets after every wear, but considering that you may have come into contact with someone who wasn’t feeling well, or has the virus but doesn’t know yet, ramping up your coat washing for a while may be a good idea.
A backpack or a purse are not items that you would normally disinfect after each time you venture out, but considering the huge number of places that these items get placed, set, and hung up, giving them a wipe down may help you prevent the spread of outside germs.
Toss a backpack in the washing machine, and wipe the inside and outside of purses down regularly to make sure these are not the items that you forget to disinfect.
When you are ready to head home from somewhere, you are going to touch your car door handle, your steering wheel, your gear shift, and maybe your radio buttons, window controls, and lock buttons - that’s a lot of things that just got potentially contaminated in your car.
Try to limit any car contamination by using a hand sanitizer before getting into your car, and then regularly go over the high-touch car surfaces, levers, steering wheel, and buttons with a sanitizing wipe.
If you have to leave the house for an essential outing, you are going to wear shoes and come in contact with all of the ground and floor surfaces while you are out and about.
That means there is a chance you are coming into contact with germs that have drifted to the ground from someone’s cough or sneeze.
To take extra precautions and avoid walking these things back into your home, take your shoes off immediately after entering your house, and give your shoes a quick go-over with a disinfecting wipe or tossing them into the washing machine regularly.
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