Make it a habit to wash your hands thoroughly with running water and soap. If you're cleaning at home, use disinfecting wipes to clean surfaces and prevent the spread of germs and viruses.
To save money, you can make DIY disinfecting wipes at home using only four items.
Hygiene and proper sanitation is key to preventing infections
Even if there's no pandemic, you need to keep surfaces in your home clean to prevent infections, such as during flu season.
Using a household cleaner that contains soap or detergent to clean your home helps reduce the number of germs on surfaces and decreases the risk of infection from contaminated surfaces.
Most of the time, cleaning alone removes most virus particles on surfaces. Keep your home clean by following the tips below:
- Clean high-touch surfaces regularly or as needed and after you have visitors in your home.
- Other surfaces in your home that are visibly dirty should be cleaned immediately or as needed.
- Clean and disinfect your home more frequently if there are people in your household who are more likely to get very sick, especially individuals who are immunocompromised.
- Clean surfaces using a product suitable for each surface and follow instructions on the product label.
Since some viruses can live on surfaces for up to several days, maintaining a cleaning regimen is essential to your health and the continued sanitation of your home.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), you should disinfect areas where there can be a large number of household germs and where there is a possibility that these germs could spread to others. (Related: Coronavirus prevention: How to make DIY disinfecting wipes with bleach and hydrogen peroxide.)
High-touch surfaces that need frequent cleaning include:
- Bathrooms
- Countertops
- Doorknobs
- Faucet handles
- Keyboards
- Light switches
- Phones
- Remote controls
- Tables
- Toilet flush handles
Keeping hard surfaces at home clean is essential during flu season. To save money on cleaning supplies, learn how to make DIY disinfecting wipes.
How to make DIY disinfecting wipes
Cleaning your home helps remove germs, dirt and impurities from surfaces. However, cleaning doesn't kill germs: It only removes them and lowers their numbers to reduce the risk of spreading infection.
Meanwhile, disinfecting refers to the use of chemicals to kill germs on surfaces. This process does not necessarily clean dirty surfaces or remove germs, but killing germs on a surface after cleaning helps eliminate the risk of spreading infection.
To make DIY disinfecting wipes, you will need paper towels, bleach like Clorox, dish soap, water and a plastic cleaning container for wipes. You can also reuse empty wipes containers.
You will need:
- 1 Roll paper towels
- 1/2 Cup Clorox (Can replace with your choice of bleach.)
- 1 Tablespoon liquid dish soap
- 1 Gallon water
Steps:
- Cut the paper towel roll to fit into the desired container.
- Add the bleach and dish soap to the water. Mix well.
- Pour enough of the bleach solution over the paper towel roll to fully soak the roll. You will need about two to four cups of the liquid.
- Remove the cardboard center from the paper towel roll.
- Pull pieces of the paper towel wipes from the center hole of the roll and close the container.
To use the paper towel wipes, cover the surface you want to clean with the wipes and let the wipes sit for five minutes. Once done, wipe with a wet cloth and air dry.
If you have disinfecting solution left over, pour it into a spray bottle for another use. You can also use cotton towels instead of paper towels. The cotton towels can then be washed after and reused.
If you're out of store-bought wipes, make DIY paper towel wipes at home to save some money and keep your home clean and disinfected.
More related stories:
Prepper medicine: How to make and use tea tree oil.
Scientists: Handwashing gets rid of more germs than using hand sanitizers.
Watch the video below to learn how to make DIY hand sanitizer.
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