Hospital cleaners share tips to keep homes virus-free
Keen to keep your home as clean as possible right now? Lisa Salmon finds out what hospital cleaning experts want us all to know.
IT’S ALWAYS nice to have a clean home – and right now, home hygiene is especially important.
Although it’s unclear exactly how long the Covid-19 virus lingers on surfaces – and the risk of infection depends on lots of things, including the type of surfaces contaminated and the amount of virus shed – keeping aware and on top of cleaning routines is generally a good idea.
The UK Government and Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) recommend householders clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces, such as bathrooms, grab-rails in corridors and stairwells and door handles, and use regular household disinfectants to clean surfaces. It’s advised to use a disposable cloth and first clean hard surfaces with warm soapy water.
Donna Williams and Diane Cullen work as part of the domestic team at
NHS Property Services and over the past few months they’ve been on the frontline, undertaking deep cleans and helping minimise the spread of Covid-19 in hospitals.
But as well as helping keep hospitals germ-free, the pair are keen to ensure householders know how to reduce contamination risk in their own homes too.
“There are simple things you can do to stop the spread of germs, without having to do really deep cleans every time,” Williams says.
Cullen adds: “As lockdown measures continue to lift, we’ll be coming into more and more contact with people outside of our households. While the house may seem like a safe environment, it’s still good to take precautions.
“We won’t be able to eradicate all germs or bacteria but it’s still important to be careful and keep up with basic cleanliness around the house, to stop any bacteria we may pick up spreading further.”
The pair’s top tips include shunning cloths in exchange for kitchen roll. “Our number one piece of advice – which people may find surprising – is not to use cloths when cleaning as they can cling on to germs and bacteria much better than other products,” says Williams.
“We expect these will be one of the top items in people’s cleaning artillery, but it’s just as important to think about how and where you might be spreading germs, as well as cleaning them in the first place.”
Kitchen roll as an alternative can help to stop the spread of germs, if it’s used in one area only and then disposed of.
As an extra tip, Williams says that if she gets a takeaway meal, she takes an additional precaution. “When I take it out of the bag, I like to put down some kitchen roll first so it’s not touching the table and you have an extra barrier between the surface and the container.”
The pair advise trying to keep surfaces clean and clear and recommend washing hands after each task in the home, to ensure germs don’t spread to different parts of the house.
When out and about, cleaning wipes are handy to ensure anything that has been taken out of the home can be cleaned before heading back inside.
Places people often forget to clean are regular household touchpoints, such as door handles and handrails on the staircase, says Cullen.
“They may seem less important than food areas, for example, but they’re places everyone in the house will come in to contact with all the time without thinking.
“People returning home from a trip outside will be heading into different rooms, or up to the bathroom to wash, and touching various communal points along the way.
“This will become even more important as lockdown measures continue to ease in coming weeks, and friends and family may be allowed to visit each other’s houses.”
CLEANING: Hospital cleaners have shared their tips for keeping homes free from coronavirus.