6 Ways to Keep Your Home Healthy

There have been so many changes and emerging trends over this past little while and I think some of these trends are great and they’re here to stay one in particular that i’m very happy about is the notion that not only is your home supposed to be clean like tidy but your home is supposed to be a healthy haven for you and your family think about it like this not too long ago we would come in from wherever we were during the day we would bring in colds and flus and that was just a fact of life but now we’re starting to think differently about what home could look like in terms of how healthy a space it is.

Be mindful of all surfaces: For as long as most of us have been cleaning our homes we have categorized areas like the bathroom and points of contact a certain way but now that we’ve been spending so much more time at home it’s safe to say there are some more surfaces that we should be adding to that category namely areas that we work on eat on and play on the idea here is that we want to prevent the spread of harmful bacteria which is why we want to reconsider the way that we’re cleaning these on a regular basis.

Indoor Air quality: Something else that’s here to stay is indoor air quality and the importance of keeping the air inside your home healthy not only because it manages dust and odors but because within the air that’s where you’re getting things like pollen bacteria and viruses that can just travel around airborne and affect you in one way or another now of course there are many different ways that you can accomplish clean indoor air changing your indoor air filter vacuuming using an air purifier the key component here is finding really good filtration so when you’re bringing those products into your home you want to look for a hepa filter and the reason hepa is important it’s a type of filter stands for high efficiency particulate air filter and what it does is it takes out all of the bad stuff in a very efficient way if you’re using something that says it’s an air filter but it doesn’t have hepa you’re not getting the type of air cleaning that you really need to stay healthy indoors.

Clean first Disinfect second: Cleaning and disinfecting are often used as synonymous terms but they are anything but if you want to clean a surface you just choose an appropriate cleaner and clean it but if you want to disinfect a surface you have to go one step further you clean first and you disinfect second so in this case i’m picking an appropriate cleaner for the surface i’m about to clean i’m applying that and wiping it clean that way i’m removing any dirt or debris from the surface and now i’ll disinfect the surface in this case i’m going to be using micro band 24 sanitizing spray which is a totally unique product when it’s used as directed it initially kills 99.9 percent of bacteria and viruses on hard non-food surfaces which is great but when it’s allowed to air dry it also adds this invisible shield that provides -24 hour protection against the spread and growth of bacteria even after multiple touches which is perfect for those high traffic surfaces you simply spray and walk away.

Launder on the regular: Of course it’s important to keep up with your laundry but there are two things I want to draw your attention to first up sheets and towels now we know we have to launder these because we sweat in our sheets we shed dead skin cells they kind of get smelly but over time you really do need to launder them to keep your home healthy it actually affects your ability to breathe well while you’re sleeping because the more that builds up on your sheets the less comfortable it’s going to be for you to breathe while you’re sleeping and towels over time as they go from wet to dry wet to dry they can start to develop odor-causing bacteria so you want to make sure that you’re laundering both of those on a regular basis the other thing we get asked about a lot are cleaning cloths and dish towels how often they should be cleaned and how to clean them the reason it’s important to maintain both of these on a regular basis is because they can be culprits of cross contamination so for dish towels you know not only are you using it to dry your hands after you’ve washed them and dry your dishes and pots and pans but even when you’re cooking you might you know do something here and then quickly wipe your hands and then do something over there and then do the same thing so you can see how quick and easy it is for harmful bacteria to build up on that over time I would say on average in our home we change ours out 48 every hours and if i’m cooking with meat as soon as i’m done cooking I chuck them into the wash or into the wash pile depending on my laundry schedule that day now when it comes to cleaning cloths a lot of people like to have a couple of colors they color code that way they know these only ever get used in say a bathroom and these only ever get used in the kitchen because cross contamination is a real concern and by avoiding that we can keep our homes healthy.

Points of contact: One of the first things I learned how to do when I learned how to clean all those years ago was to clean points of contact because if you think about it you touch your face you touch a thing that gets frequently touched and then someone else goes and touches that same thing and then touches their face now big points of contact category in any home are electronic items whether it’s a touch pad a keyboard a phone a tablet or any electronic item in that spectrum you want to make sure that you are not only cleaning them but removing that harmful bacteria as well now i’ve conferred with a lot of different electronics manufacturers over the years and the way that they want you to do this job is to mix equal parts rubbing alcohol and water in a little spray bottle spraying a non-scratching microfiber cloth that’s a flat weave microfiber cloth give it a few spritzes and then wipe the surface whatever it is to both clean and disinfect it other points of contact around the home include doorknobs light switch plates drawer pulls faucets toilet flushers and more and the way to keep these surfaces clean and healthy is to disinfect them so to take care of these surfaces I will disinfect them on a regular basis and if I wanted to add 24-hour protection against the spread and growth of bacteria I can apply microban 24 sanitizing spray and let it air dry.

Wash your hands: Those signs you see in public bathrooms aren’t up there for nothing washing your hands of course when you’re out in public is important but when you get home from wherever you were step one well step . after you take your shoes off should be going to a sink and washing your hands with soap for 30 seconds just do it. i’m trying to teach my three-year-old how to do it now it is a lifelong habit that keeps you and your family healthy simple and done.

Thanks so much for watching and we’ll see you next time