Cleaning & Disinfecting to Stop the Spread of Colds and Flu

The only thing worse than get­ting hit with a cold or the flu is shar­ing it with your whole fam­i­ly. Many virus­es don’t dis­ap­pear once symp­toms fade — in fact, they can linger on every­day sur­faces longer than most peo­ple realize. 

Some virus­es may remain on sur­faces for:

• A few min­utes to sev­er­al hours: on porous sur­faces like tis­sues, paper tow­els, and cardboard
• Up to 24 hours: on fab­ric, cloth­ing, and some soft­er materials
• 1 – 3 days: on hard, non­porous sur­faces such as door­knobs, light switch­es, and countertops
• Sev­er­al days or more: on items that are fre­quent­ly han­dled but rarely cleaned, like phones, remote con­trols, and keyboards

Because these germs can sur­vive long after some­one starts feel­ing bet­ter, reg­u­lar clean­ing and tar­get­ed dis­in­fect­ing play a key role in pre­vent­ing ill­ness from spread­ing. Below, we’ll share tips on how to safe­guard your house­hold, includ­ing where germs like to hide and how to deep clean after ill­ness strikes.

Know­ing the Dif­fer­ence Between Clean­ing, San­i­tiz­ing and Disinfecting

While the terms are often used inter­change­ably, clean­ing, san­i­tiz­ing, and dis­in­fect­ing serve dif­fer­ent pur­pos­es. Clean­ing removes dirt, debris, and some germs from sur­faces using soap or deter­gent and water, but it doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly kill germs. San­i­tiz­ing low­ers the num­ber of germs to safer lev­els, mak­ing sur­faces less like­ly to spread ill­ness. Dis­in­fect­ing goes a step fur­ther by killing most virus­es and bac­te­ria on hard, non­porous sur­faces, help­ing stop germs from spread­ing — espe­cial­ly after some­one has been sick.

Start with the Prop­er Tools

Dis­in­fec­tants
Dis­in­fect­ing is key to destroy­ing germs because it wipes out bac­te­ria, virus­es and fun­gi that live on sur­faces. To make your own dis­in­fec­tant solu­tion, you can com­bine one quar­ter-cup of chlo­rine bleach with one gal­lon of hot water

Wear Pro­tec­tive Gloves
Wear­ing gloves can pro­tect your skin from clean­ing prod­ucts. Once you have fin­ished dis­in­fect­ing your home and office, use warm soap and water to thor­ough­ly wash your reusable gloves.

Con­sid­er Wear­ing a Face Mask
While clean­ing, germs can become air­borne — espe­cial­ly when wip­ing, scrub­bing, or shak­ing out fab­rics. Wear­ing a face mask can help reduce the spread of res­pi­ra­to­ry droplets and pre­vent you from inhal­ing par­ti­cles that may car­ry virus­es or bac­te­ria. Masks are par­tic­u­lar­ly help­ful when clean­ing after some­one has been sick, work­ing in shared spaces, or dis­in­fect­ing high-touch areas. As an added ben­e­fit, they can also lim­it expo­sure to strong clean­ing fumes, mak­ing the process safer and more comfortable.

Dr. Svet­lana Stanche­va, Inter­nal Med­i­cine provider with Duly, explains, ​“It is impor­tant to always be vig­i­lant and rec­og­nize when you are get­ting sick or if you are around sick fam­i­ly mem­bers or col­leagues. We may not always have dis­in­fect­ing prod­ucts on hand but we can always pro­tect our­selves or oth­ers by wear­ing a mask, keep­ing a dis­tance or sim­ply stay­ing home. It is essen­tial to use prop­er dis­in­fec­tants that elim­i­nate most viruses/​bacteria which are avail­able on the mar­ket that will great­ly reduce the spread of most com­mon viruses/​bacteria.”

Roll up Your Sleeves: Places to Clean

In Your Home

Hid­ing in Plain Sight
When it comes to germs, the biggest cul­prits aren’t always the obvi­ous mess­es. Many bac­te­ria and virus­es live on the sur­faces we touch con­stant­ly — often with­out real­iz­ing it. Start­ing with these high-touch items helps stop germs from spread­ing from one sur­face (and per­son) to anoth­er, mak­ing the rest of your clean­ing efforts more effective.

Begin by dis­in­fect­ing the things every­one in your house­hold reach­es for through­out the day, including:

• Door­knobs
• Light switch­es
• Ceil­ing fan pulls
• Cell phones
• Remote con­trols

By tack­ling these com­mon­ly used sur­faces first, you reduce the num­ber of germs cir­cu­lat­ing in your home and cre­ate a clean­er foun­da­tion for the rest of your clean­ing routine.

Bed­rooms
Clean­ing your bed­room once you are feel­ing bet­ter can go a long way. It takes time to ful­ly recov­er from being sick and a clean bed­room can give you a bet­ter chance of recov­er­ing quickly.

• Sheets and pil­low cases
• Alarm clocks
• Lamp pulls
• Door­knobs
• Robe
• Dress­er drawers

Bath­room
Your bath­room is always a breed­ing ground for germs, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the win­ter­time when colds and flus can have you vis­it­ing the restroom more fre­quent­ly. Once you are feel­ing bet­ter, be sure to dis­in­fect sur­faces in your bathroom.

• Faucet han­dles on sink and bath tub
• Toi­let handle
• Bath tow­els, hand tow­els, washcloths
• Med­i­cine cabinet
• Bath mats
• Door­knobs

Kitchen
Although you are most like­ly not spend­ing a lot of time in the kitchen when you are sick, you will be in the kitchen from time to time. Wipe down and dis­in­fect the coun­ters and pay atten­tion to a few of the small­er details, such as:

• Refrig­er­a­tor handles
• Stove knobs
• Cof­fee pot and/​or tea kettle
• Draw­er pulls
• Microwave

Shared Spaces

Although a lot of time is spent in bed when you are down with a cold or flu, many peo­ple also rest in com­mon areas of the house. In addi­tion to clean­ing sur­faces in your fam­i­ly room, wash house­hold items and vac­u­um your floors, couch­es and chairs.

Toss in the Wash

• Blan­kets
• Throw pil­lows
• Stuffed toys

Run Through the Dishwasher

• Hard toys
• Paci­fiers
• Humid­i­fi­er parts

Don’t Risk It
Germs love to hide in moist places. Replac­ing items such as tooth­brush­es and sponges can safe­guard against spread­ing sickness.

At the Office

While it is best for you and your co-work­ers to stay home when you are under the weath­er, some­times you find your­self at your desk when you are sick. When you are feel­ing bet­ter, clean your work­space to keep your­self on the mend.

• Chair arms
• Mouse and keyboard
• Tele­phone
• File cab­i­net pulls
• Water bot­tle
• Door­knobs

Tak­ing the time to min­i­mize the spread of germs can go a long way in keep­ing you and your fam­i­ly healthy dur­ing cold and flu sea­son. Remem­ber, pre­vent­ing the spread of germs is often eas­i­er than deal­ing with ill­ness lat­er — wash­ing your hands reg­u­lar­ly with soap and water for at least 20 sec­onds is one of the sim­plest ways to pro­tect your­self and your family.

If you need sup­port to man­age a nasty virus, our pri­ma­ry care providers and Imme­di­ate Care Cen­ters offer same-day and next-day in-per­son or vir­tu­al vis­its sev­en days a week. Find care from Duly now >