Cleaning the house: how to sanitize more carefully

Clean, sanitized and almost sterilized homes: never as in this period, attention to home hygiene is becoming a fundamental practice to contain the spread of the new Coronavirus.

Also complicit in the measures of isolation and containment of the contagion that forced us to stay at our home, since we are in a health emergency, cleaning activities have assumed importance not only from a hygienic point of view, but also from a psychological point of view, helping us to release anxiety and stress.

Coronavirus and the importance of hygiene

While it is now clear enough that Covid-19 is unable to spread through the air or particulate matter, we do know that it can nestle on various solid surfaces and remain there for several days.

As for domestic environments, the presence of infecting viral particles on the glass is detectable up to 2 days after contamination. However, according to a very recent study conducted by Csiro (Australian National Scientific Agency) and published in the Virology Journal, the virus would be able to survive up to 28 days on common surfaces, including glass, such as that of smartphones, but also on stainless steel. Finally, Coronavirus particles were detected on plastic material up to 4 days after contamination. After 7 days, however, their presence is no longer detectable.

To prevent Coronavirus infection, it is therefore essential to be able to keep the various surfaces clean, using detergents or disinfectants; In this case, we recommend products based on ethanol or alcohol at least 75%, or solutions based on chlorine, such as classic bleach. Covid-19, like all viruses, is in fact made up of a type of membrane that can be disintegrated by a hydroalcoholic solution, i.e. containing an alcohol and water base.

How to sanitize your home, floors and surfaces

To disinfect and sanitize floors, a preliminary cleaning with water and a normal detergent is recommended; subsequently, they must be cleaned with chlorine-based products. To eliminate Covid-19, chlorine must be present at 0.1% and, given that the bleach on the market contains it in measures ranging from 5 to 10%, it must be diluted following the correct doses (for example, 50 ml of produced at 5% in 2450 milliliters of water, or 100 ml of 5% product in 4900 milliliters of water).

The same precaution also applies in the case of cleaning domestic surfaces (desks, bedside tables, tables, handles, but also light switches, PCs and tablets): both chlorine-based products and alcohol-based disinfectants can be used.

The virus, as mentioned, could survive on floors for a few days. In addition to the practical precautions we are all used to (wash your hands often, take off your shoes before entering the house, disinfect the soles as soon as possible before bringing them back to the home) and if in addition to Covid you also fear viruses and bacteria, then you can resort to cleaning with steam: very few bacteria and viruses, in fact, are able to withstand high temperatures (above 90 ° C). Steam cleaning is therefore an optimal solution to thoroughly clean the house and keep it away from Covid-19, as it is able to sweep away germs and bacteria down to their smallest residues. And when we’re going to deal with rugs/carpets, hiring a professional carpet cleaning service like Carpet Cleaning Edgware is recommended.