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Recently, I suffered from a nasty bout of the flu. As I emerged from my sickness-induced haze, I made a to-do list: restock my fridge, catch up on emails and most importantly, disinfect my apartment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The Guardian\u2019s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.\u00a0Learn more.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing worse than getting sick only to infect your entire household. While the flu viruses stay on hands for only five minutes, they have been found to stay contagious anywhere from a few hours to two days on hard surfaces.<\/p>\n While cleaning removes germs, disinfecting kills <\/em>germs and helps to reduce the spread of an illness. You don\u2019t need to disinfect your home all the time, but it makes a difference when someone is sick or immuno-compromised in your home, advises the CDC.<\/p>\n I spoke with two people who know how to and kill germs for a living, Dr Chetan Jinadatha, a clinical professor at Texas A&M who researches the spread of infections in hospital settings, and Maddy Baker, a school custodian based in Nebraska, on how we can properly disinfect our homes when we\u2019re sick. (I wasn\u2019t surprised to learn that, like with my bathroom, I\u2019d been approaching it entirely wrong.)<\/p>\n <\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Amazon<\/p>\n Zep all-purpose cleaner<\/strong><\/p>\n $7.99 at Amazon<\/span><\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Amazon<\/p>\n Microfiber cloths<\/strong><\/p>\n $7.98 at Amazon<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe organic material that is present can make the disinfectant less potent by either neutralizing it or interfering with its action,\u201d said Jinadatha. In other words: it\u2019s hard to disinfect something that\u2019s still dirty.<\/p>\n For an effective cleaner, Baker recommended using a multi-purpose cleaner or degreaser, such as Zep. Alternatively, she said that a \u201cbit of dish soap and water will do the trick\u201d. You may need to use more dish soap than a product like Zep made specifically to fight grease, but Baker recommends soap over degreasers on \u201csensitive surfaces that may not be able to handle harsh chemicals\u201d.<\/p>\n Baker also likes to use a microfiber cloth, which is \u201cgreat for trapping dust and grime while scrubbing surfaces\u201d, she said in an email.<\/p>\n On a disinfecting product\u2019s label, illnesses are categorized by letters. So, if you\u2019re trying to kill Covid-19 germs, you\u2019ll want a product that displays List N. For germs from Ebola, you\u2019ll want List Q. To find an illness\u2019s classification, you can visit the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s website.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can go there and see which disinfectants have those particular kill claims,\u201d Jinadatha said.<\/p>\n <\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Amazon<\/p>\n OdoBan disinfectant concentrate<\/strong><\/p>\n $8.99 at Amazon<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t wait until you or a member of your household starts feeling better to use your disinfectant. If you can, use it every day they\u2019re sick. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what they\u2019re touching and where they\u2019re spreading it,\u201d said Jinadatha.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to The Filter US<\/span><\/p>\n A guide to buying fewer, better products.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n He personally uses a standard bleach to remove bacteria and germs. If you go this route, make sure it has a concentration between 5% and 10%. Next, dilute it with water to a ratio of one to 10, apply it and let it sit for 3min to 5min.<\/p>\n Baker likes Odoban\u2019s Disinfectant Concentrate, a hospital-grade option that comes in a range of scents including eucalyptus.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s cost-efficient and you can find it pretty much anywhere. Once diluted properly, it effectively kills germs while also acting as a deodorizer. To me, this is a huge plus because a place just feels extra clean when it has a noticeably pleasant smell.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span> Photograph: sellyhutapea\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cThese disinfectants don\u2019t kill on contact,\u201d said Jinadatha.<\/p>\n Instead, each product and type of bacteria has a dwell time, the number of minutes a disinfectant must sit to be effective.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s five minutes, it\u2019s five minutes. When [people] dry the surface completely after spraying it and then go to the extra length of taking another dry towel and cleaning it right away, they are essentially getting no disinfectant action,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While a hospital-grade disinfectant will include dwell time on its label, you may not always find this information on a commercial option.<\/p>\n While all disinfectants should be vetted by the EPA, Jinadatha said the EPA holds hospital-grade disinfectants to a higher standard. Regardless of the specific product you choose, always read its label, which will instruct you on how long to let the product sit. For instance, depending on the product, killing Norovirus germs may require a longer dwell time than Covid-19.<\/p>\n Other pieces you might enjoy from the Filter, the Guardian\u2019s guide to buying fewer, better things:<\/strong><\/p>\n Explore the Filter<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently, I suffered from a nasty bout of the flu. As I emerged from my sickness-induced haze, I made a to-do list: restock my fridge, catch up on emails and most importantly, disinfect my apartment. The Guardian\u2019s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.\u00a0Learn more. There\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[24951,1326,456,337,8056,2292,891,809,24950],"class_list":{"0":"post-50995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-disinfect","9":"tag-dont","10":"tag-home","11":"tag-life","12":"tag-properly","13":"tag-sick","14":"tag-style","15":"tag-theyre","16":"tag-touching"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Start with a clean surface<\/h2>\n
Check the label<\/h2>\n
Kill germs as you go<\/h2>\n
Don\u2019t wipe it right away<\/h2>\n