How Healthy is your Home?
The cold and flu season is upon us and now more than ever it is important to sanitize your home. Keeping your home healthy is important to keeping your entire family healthy. Here are some things you can do to help keep your home healthy:
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- Wash your sheets and linens. It is important to wash your sheets as your body naturally sloughs off cells. You need to wash your sheets to keep them sanitized and to prevent bacterial growth. Wash your clothing after each time you wear them to keep them clean and free of pet dander and other allergens.
- Grab your duster and hit up all the areas in your home. You need to clean everywhere where dust resides like the top of the fan and light fixtures, furniture, and window sills. Dust weekly to keep dust mites and pet dander to a low level.
- Vacuum often. Since shoes can pick up a number of germs, you should require everyone in your home to take them off when they come through the door. Spray the shoes with a sanitizer to try and keep them clean and make sure are by a furnace vent so they can stay dry to prevent mold from growing. Dirt, pet dander, and dust mites cling to carpet so it is important to vacuum often to remove them from the carpet.
- Scrub your carpets. Not only should you vacuum often, you also need to deep scrub your carpets. Rent a rug doctor from the store and scrub all the carpets in your home. Scrubbing the carpets helps to pull up dirt and other things that are trapped in the carpet pad.
- Change the pad that you use to scrub your dishes once a week. Sponges can catch excess food and grow into bacterial germs that you may be transporting onto other dishes. Always make sure the water you use to wash the dishes is extremely hot to destroy bacterial. You also need to let the dishes dry in hot air. If you don't have a dishwasher, put your dishes into the microwave for 30-60 seconds to kill the bacteria.
- Disinfect all the surfaces in your home that are commonly touched. The doorknobs, phone, cookie jar, water bottles, and toothbrush holders need to be sterilized weekly.
- Change your toothbrush every month and change your showering loofah once a month as well. They are known for gathering dead skill cells and this can become a breeding ground for mold and bacteria.
- Wash your hands often and send antibacterial hand wipes to school with your kids. Make sure they are using them before they touch their nose, eyes, and mouth. Washing your hands is important to prevent the spread of the flu and the common cold.
- Change the air filters in your home 2 times a year. Always make sure you put new air filters on your heater since it can trap dust mites and send them back up through the vents and this is the air you will breathe. The common cold and the flu can be transmitted through the air so you need to keep the air quality in your home and clean as possible.
- On warm days, open up the windows for a few minutes to get some fresh air in the home. Since it is cold in the winter we all seem to lock ourselves inside and we do not allow the fresh air in.
- Increase your families intake of fruits and vegetables. During the winter it is hard to come by fresh fruits and vegetables but we need them in our diet to build up our immune system and to fight off the common cold and the flu.
