Cleaning

[darkemeralds]

I'm a crappy housekeeper, and the new pandemic requirements around cleanliness have put me into cognitive dissonance. I don't know how to manage.

I'd like to share what I learned today about cleaning from the LSHTM Viral podcast. (S1 E17 titled "Is Washing Your Hands Enough?" is the episode in question).



1. Audit the touched surfaces in your home. Knobs, buttons, handles, countertops. Keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, remote. The movables: phone, earphones, keys, wallet, credit cards. Steering wheel, dash, door handles. Handlebars, brakes, and shifter.

2. Clean surfaces using this rule: "One cloth, one wipe, one direction." No scrubbing back and forth. Elbow grease is important. The idea is to force any contaminants in a single direction away from the area of use and onto the cloth, and then change cloth so as not to redistribute those contaminants to the next surface.

You wrap that soapy cloth around the door handle or the rail or the cabinet knob, and you grip and pull, in one direction. Then you put that cloth aside, and get a new one.

I'm using cut-up microfiber towels stuffed into a jar of soapy water or disinfectant solution. When I'm done, I rinse the used ones out and put them in the laundry. Then I wash my hands. Again.

3. When you come back in from being out, assume you've come into contact with the virus. Wash your hands first. Then take off your outer clothes and put them in the laundry. Then you wash your hands again and put on clean clothes.

Then clean any surfaces you touched on the way in (doorknob, mailbox, washer door handle), and any surfaces you touched while out (phone, keys, wallet).

Even if you haven't been out lately, it's a good idea to wash your clothes more often than you might have before.



And that's what I learned today about virus management. Next up: making my own masks.

Comments

[ranunculus]

Interesting about moving the cloth only one direction.

[darkemeralds]

The way the hospital professionals explained it, you don't want to go back and forth, but instead think of the cleaning cloth as a kind of broom, pushing contaminants. But it's a broom that the contaminants also stick to. So one pass, and throw the broom away, so to speak.

It might be a bit extreme even now to main this level of hygiene in your private home, especially if nobody has gone out and come back again since the last time you cleaned. But it strikes me as a good basic principle to keep in mine.

[ranunculus]

I can imagine uses for that info.

[kis]

Useful advice. Though #3 would be too much for me because I'm outside everyday, dogwalking, and Goretex requires special laundering. I'm choosing to believe that Covid-19 lasts longest on hard surfaces (metal, plastic, glass) and being ruthless with those.

God, I hope they come up with a vaccine soon.

[darkemeralds]

I feel like if I'm just out walking, maintaining a wide distance from others and keeping my hands in my pockets, then washing my clothes afterwards is a bit much. This is more if I have to go to the grocery store, where I can't avoid touching things. Then, I assume my clothes could easily be contaminated.

My water and electric bills will be rising, I'm sure, but at least I have a clothesline and don't have to use my dryer every time.

[kis]

My water and electric bills will be rising

... and the skin on my hands is taking on the texture of dry leaves.

[darkemeralds]

Big Hand Cream is undoubtedly rubbing its big creamy hands together in glee.

[tehomet]

Thank you for sharing this. I like the one direction swiping; it makes sense.

I've never used so much bleach and paper towels in my life, personally.

And I should buy shares in a handcream company.