Clearing your home of COVID requires two simple steps
Whilst hopefully the end of the pandemic is in sight with vaccines being rolled out from this month, it’s still important that people keep up the good work of mitigating spread. As many of us consider welcoming people back into our homes again for Christmas, there have been many theories about what we should do to protect ourselves in terms of cleaning our interiors. Whether it’s using a particular product that costs the earth or having to spend countless hours scrubbing the house from top to bottom, we’ve heard it all. The truth? It doesn’t need to break the bank and can be tackled by something you’ll be sure to find in your cupboard already - soap. Yes, would you believe it?
A new cleaning regime, the brainchild of cleaning experts Poppies, outlines the steps needed to help reduce the spread by tackling the virus head on. By using a good old-fashioned soap and water mix, the Clean and Sanitise programme couldn’t be any more straightforward. Chris Wootton, Managing Director of Poppies, highlights how a quality level of cleanliness can be achieved by using these two easy steps.
“Whilst it’s easily caught and spread, the virus which causes COVID-19 is also often quite simply deactivated with soap and water alone. By taking things one step further and sanitising a clean surface, it significantly lowers the risk of viral infection compared to just completing first stage alone. That’s why a Clean and Sanitise is an effective programme our professional cleaners use in our clients’ homes and why you should feel safe in the knowledge you can achieve this result yourself.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Step 1: Cleaning – by scrubbing with the soapy solution, it will remove the dirt and grime from surfaces. This is crucial preparation for the next step and, to put it bluntly, a dirty surface cannot be sanitised.
Step 2: Sanitising – this step uses a disinfectant to make clean surfaces ‘safe for human activity’. Whilst COVID-19 doesn’t need as much time in contact with the solution to deactivate it versus viruses such as Sars-COV2, leaving the solution on for a longer period of time will protect against other tough nasties too.
Don’t forget:
• Don’t try to sanitise before you clean
• Commonly forgotten areas to sanitise are the TV remote, mobile phone, computer keyboard and the outside door handle and doorbell
• Moisturise your hands – frequent hand washing and alcohol-based gels can quickly take their tool.
“You may also be confused by experts talking about a further step which is commonly known as ‘disinfecting’. This is an additional stage to our two-step process deactivating or killing ALL pathogens (germs, viruses, bacteria and mould) to ‘laboratory’ levels. This usually requires leaving a disinfectant in constant contact with a surface for 3-5 minutes. It’s unlikely you’ll ever need to clean your home to this level.
“And if you’re not one of those who finds cleaning to be therapeutic, now you can reward yourself with a festive tipple knowing you’ve got a simple solution to removing potential traces of the COVID-19 virus from your home.”
-ends-
Editor’s notes:
For more information, or to speak with Chris directly, please contact Liam on 07395 641 523 or liam@revpr.co.uk
Images attached: Chris Wootton, clean and sanitise.