Cleaning Your Home Makes You Healthier
When trying to avoid sickness cleanliness is basic. There is of course factors outside our homes that will inevitably lead to sickness a couple times a year, if not more. The fact of life is that you will get sick, and if you do not take the appropriate measures the rest of your family will get sick too. Getting sick may be inevitable, but you can always prevent disease from spreading by disinfecting surfaces and following healthy habits.
You probably already know that hand-washing is the single most efficient way to prevent the spreading of illnesses like the common cold. What you might be forgetting is that in most homes people use the same towels to dry everyone’s hands. Hand towels should be replaced as often as possible during this time to avoid spreading bugs around. Consider paper using paper towels as well; this is not a very ecologically friendly approach, but it is an option to be considered.
Our second recommendation would be to maintain a clean bathroom. After all that is where most of us will be washing our hands. Keep your sink handles and toilets clean to avoid more cross contamination. Another good idea would be to limit yourself to use one bathroom and avoid maintain this habit until everybody is feeling better.
If you have little ones that have fallen ill, a good thing to do would be to clean and disinfect toys and play areas. You may do this on a regular basis already, but it is especially important to maintain toys and common areas disinfected. Along with the idea of cleaning toys, make sure the “toys” of the older children are also clean. Of course we are talking electronics: Keyboards, TV remote, and video game controllers are great things to keep in mind.
If you are sick enough to miss work, you will probably spend a good time of your “time-off” stuck in bed. You need to make sure your sheets and pillow are clean and disinfected after your get better. You want eliminate the source of the illness altogether; you probably don’t want to sleep on dirty sheets anyways. While you’re at it you might also want to flip your mattress.
Another benefit of maintaining a clean home is the comfortable feeling you get walking into a tidy place. If you are already feeling down, the last thing you need is to feel even sick in the space that you are in. Nobody wants to clean while under the weather, but the feeling afterwards is totally worth it.
Cleaning your home is not a bulletproof way to stay healthy, there are external factors that will eventually get you sick. Cleaning will make sure that you are not spreading the bug around your family and hopefully will shorten the time you spend under the weather.
Arizona is known for a couple of different things: Scenic views, great weather, but a lot of people forget about or unlimited amounts of DUST! When it comes to house cleaning jobs, it is almost always best to attack them at the source; with dust this is nearly impossible. Household dust is mostly comprised of dirt, skin flakes and textiles fibers; add to that living in the desert and you have a perfect storm. Unless you plan on getting rid of all your clothes, we suggest talking this issue in a more socially acceptable and efficient way.
First thing is to pick you tools: You’ve probably seen a feather duster before, yes they look fancy and are probably a lot of fun to play with, but they only move dust around instead of capturing it. Instead, get yourself a damp soft cloth or a microfiber duster, these will capture the dust and keep it from going everywhere. A vacuum would be another thing to have handy, a lot of surfaces are better of vacuumed than to dusted.
Now that you have your tools up and ready it is time to get to cleaning your house. It is better to go in with a plan, don’t just dust anywhere, follow a path through your home and stick to it. it might as obvious, but it is always better to go from top to bottom. Another good practice is to move through the room clockwise or counterclockwise, this way you make sure you do not miss any spots. Do not forget to get to those hard to reach places as dust likes to accumulate especially in those hard to reach spots.
The truth is that no matter how much time you spend doing house cleaning, dust will keep coming back week after week. There is no practical way to keep 100% of the dust reappearing later next week, but there is a number of different things you can look for that can keep your home dust-free for a longer time.
Your A/C not only maintains your home at a comfortable temperature but it also maintains the airflow in your home, make sure that your air filter is well maintained. A clean air filter will reduce the amount of dust that makes it back to you living spaces.
As I mentioned before, dust is made in a large percentage of skin flakes and fabric, what better place to find these than your bed. Your bed sheet need to be changed and cleaned on a regular basis, this will keep the amount of dust coming from you bed in check.
A lot of the dust coming into our homes comes from outside, a mat in your front door or just inside of your home will keep a lot of the dirt in your shoes from coming into your home. Of course make sure to clean this mat every once in a while.
Of course you can always the professionals from Essentials Cleaner help you out and handle your dust for you. Either way follow these simple tips and be sure that your home will look and feel more clean.
Spring Cleaning is right around the corner! Don’t know how to begin your attack on all the house cleaning?
Here is a check list to make sure you cover all your bases and don’t miss a thing!
Kitchen
• De-clutter your counters and get rid of unnecessary kitchen utensils and tools
• Wipe down top and front of cabinets
• Wipe down backsplash
• Clean inside of oven
• Clean microwave and toaster oven
• Clean refrigerator
• Vacuum under all appliaces
• Clean out pantry and get rid of unwanted food
• Sweep
• Mop
Living Room
• De-clutter anything you don’t need, want or use
• Dust all cobwebs
• Vacuum couches
• Sweep/vacuum/mop/shampoo floors
• Wash curtains and blinds
Bedrooms
• De-clutter clothing, shoes and anything unneeded
• Wash all bedding
• Flip mattress
• Vacuum/sweep/mop/shampoo floors
Kids and Pets
• De-clutter broken toys
• Disinfect toys
• Bathe pets
• Wash water/food bowls
Bathrooms
• De-clutter toiletries, cabinets and drawers
• Wash Shower curtain
• Clean tub and toilet
• Sweep/mop floors
Laundry Room
• De-clutter cleaning supplies you don’t need
• Clean washer and dryer inside and outside
• Sweep/mop floors
All around the House
• Clean all ceiling fans
• Wash windows and mirrors
• Change batteries to smoke detectors
• Wipe down walls and baseboards
• Clean air vents
If this still isn’t motivating you to get it all done- Let us take it off your hands!
