While there are a lot of preventative measures people can take to prevent cold and flu or avoid getting sick, eventually, someone in your home or office will come down with a particularly nasty bug.
Viruses like the cold and flu can stay alive on surfaces for up to three hours! So if you’re going to prevent your family or your coworkers from falling ill, you’re going to want to do some serious cleaning and disinfecting to get rid of germs fast. We asked some of our disinfection pros for their best suggestions and they came up with this critical list of 5 items that will help prevent cold and flu.
#1 – Use Disposable Cleaning Tools
If there’s something “going around,” you’re going to want to use disposable cleaning tools like paper towels to clean everything. We’re all about environmentally friendly, but when it comes to preventing the cold and flu, this is really important. If you must use sponges or brushes, make sure you run them through the dishwasher every single day.
#2 – Scrub Bathroom Sinks
Bathroom sinks are an absolute hotbed for germs to hang out while they infect everyone using the bathroom. Scrub the toilets, faucets, and any door handles or knobs with a disinfectant cleaner. A disinfectant is NOT the same as a surfactant or regular or all-purpose cleaner. If your home is infected, make sure you take extra time with the toothbrush holder. You can even disinfect toothbrushes by boiling them in water or letting them soak in an antiseptic mouthwash or a bath containing effervescent disinfecting tablets (the kind Nana uses for her dentures) for about ten minutes.
#3 – Use Disinfectant Cleaners
As we said, there’s a difference between a regular cleaner (a surfactant) and a disinfectant. To help prevent cold and flu, make sure the products you are using say “disinfectant” on the label. Otherwise, you’re just smearing germs around. Disposable wipes are a great way to avoid using sponges and brushes.
#4 – Encourage Others to Wash Their Hands
You can make the people in your home wash their hands, but keeping tabs on your employees can put you in grey legal areas you’d rather avoid. So post reminders about how important is to wash hands and even post instructions! A wimpy two seconds under the faucet isn’t going to cut it. People should be using warm water for 20-25 seconds. And while you need disinfectant cleaners, you can actually use any kind of soap.
#5 – Focus on Points of Contact
A point of contact is any surface that people use extremely often without even thinking about whether it may or may not be clean. In the office, these can be light switches, doorknobs, keyboards, computer mice, the buttons on the microwave, coffeemaker and water cooler, and telephones. In your home, this can be remote controls, game remotes, cell phones, light switches, the fridge door handle, and the medicine cabinet (and any bins you may use to organize your medications). To prevent cold and flu from spreading, pay extra attention to sanitizing these items.x
Professional Cleaning and Disinfecting
If you’ve got something going around your home or office and want to stop it in its tracts, consider hiring a professional cleaning company. They’re familiar with the routine and won’t forget to clean anything that can become a source of contagion. They’ve got the right tools to clean and disinfect, which means you won’t have to invest in any special cleaners.
GreenPro NYC is a professional cleaning service in the NYC area that specializes in home and office cleaning. Contact us today to learn more about our cleaning and sanitizing services and pricing.
