- Share
Right now, the coronavirus advisories suggest that each family stay home as much as possible, and keep the house clean to protect the family from infection. You can keep the family safe by limiting your contact with others, and by sanitizing any shared surface or object you need to touch. But inside the home, you can also limit the risk of infection even if someone in your household is already carrying the virus. The way to do this is dedicated sanitization and disinfecting of objects and surfaces.
What does it take to kill COVID-19 germs? How do you sanitize and disinfect your home properly to keep the family safe? That's what we're here to answer today.
Sanitizing vs Disinfecting
To start with, it's important to understand that there's a difference between sanitizing and disinfecting. Sanitizing is a quick job and is legally defined as something that kills or removes 99.9% of germs and other harmful microbes over thirty seconds of exposure. Sanitizing properly removes most of the coronavirus germs and significantly reduces the chances of transmission, but it doesn't eliminate those chances.
Disinfecting is defined as a solution that kills 100% of germs and other harmful microbes over ten minutes of exposure. This is essential for medical purposes, where killing all germs is more important than going fast.
Sanitizing and disinfecting are both most easily done with odorless bleach solution.
Sanitizing Solution
- 1 Tbs Bleach to 1 Gallon of Water
Disinfecting Solution
- 1 Tbs Bleach to 1 Quart of Water
- 1/4 Cup Bleach to 1 Gallon of Water
To Fight Coronavirus: Sanitize and Disinfect
In order to fight the spread of COVID-19, you should sanitize and disinfect. Sanitize as you go and be sure to disinfect daily and after anyone with symptoms has touched an object. Sanitization reduces the chances of the coronavirus spreading, but the virus is very contagious. Disinfecting is the only way to be sure that no virus remains on a potentially contaminated surface.
We advise, if no one in your household has symptoms, to start by disinfecting your entire home once, then keep everything sanitized and re-disinfect regularly. Wear gloves when handling bleach or bleach solution.
How to Sanitize Surfaces and Objects
Start by making a mixture of sanitizing bleach solution and fill a spray bottle. To sanitize a surface or object, spray it thoroughly with the solution and then wait 30 seconds before wiping it up. When you wipe, push your cloth into the corners and around any fixtures. Then wipe again with a clean rinsing cloth to remove traces of bleach and dead germs.
For certain objects that are safe to soak, you can also dunk them into a bucket of sanitizing solution for 30 seconds instead. Then wipe dry.
Once something is sanitized, dry it and allow it to air-dry for 30 minutes.
How to Disinfect after Sanitizing
After you have cleaned and sanitized something, you may want to disinfect it. For this process, you will need both a spray bottle and a bucket of disinfectant-strength bleach solution. For surfaces and furniture, spray a thorough coating and leave it on the surface for ten minutes before rinsing thoroughly and wiping clean.
For smaller objects like toys or kitchenware, you can drop them into a bucket of disinfecting solution. Leave them in the bucket for ten minutes, then carefully remove and submerge in clean water to rinse, or run water over it. Then pat the object down with a cloth and allow to air-dry for 30 minutes.
Keeping Your Home and Family Safe
Protecting yourself and your household from infection is a challenge we all face together during this pandemic. We hope that this information has helped you to keep a cleaner, safer home.