Cleaning properly has never been more important than it is today. In fact, if you aren’t cleaning properly, you’re most likely leaving germs and bacteria on your surfaces and in your home. You could have the world’s best disinfectant but still fail to actually clean and disinfect your home. You could have all procedural knowledge without the right products and still fail to properly disinfectant. Getting the job done right requires both procedural knowledge and proper cleaning products. 

Follow the steps below to ensure you’re properly cleaning and disinfecting your home.

Pre-Clean

Pre-cleaning is also referred to pre-disinfecting. It’s critical to remove dirt, grime and soil before applying a disinfectant. This means wiping down all the surfaces in your home, including countertops, appliances, furniture and floors. For this step, any all-purpose cleaner is sufficient. When you’re pre-cleaning, be sure to  pay attention to those frequent touch points like door knobs, appliance handles, light switches, toilet flushes, stair banisters and hand held remotes. 

Apply Disinfectant

The Environmental Protection Agency has a list of registered disinfectant cleaners on their website. It even breaks products down by what they are known to be effective against, like this list of antimicrobial products that are known to be effective against norovirus. It’s important to read the label to ensure you’re choosing the right disinfectant for the job. There you’ll find information concerning the proper PPE, correct dwell time and correct water to product ratio. If the ratio isn’t correct, the effectiveness wouldn’t be either.

Allow for Dwell Time

Dwell time is a term that refers to the wet time needed for killing a specific germ or virus. There are different dwell times for different viruses. Each cleaning agent also has different dwell time requirements. For example, some products require 90 seconds to kill the coronavirus, while others require 10 minutes. These instructions are typically found on the label.

Recover

After you’ve let your disinfectant sit for the proper dwell time, you need to “recover” the surface by wiping it down with a dry cloth in order to remove the wet disinfectant from your surfaces. 

Rinse

Your last step is to rinse the surface with water. Leaving a product on longer doesn’t always make it more effective. On the contrary, it can potentially damage the surface if left on too long. If your surface becomes tacky or sticky, you’ll need to start over. 

Lastly, you can avoid cross-contamination by using different cleaning clothes for each surface or room. Microfiber cloths are the most effective for removing bacteria. During the sanitation process you need to change your cloth or wipe after every 2 surfaces. If this step is done incorrectly,  you could potential spread the contaminates to other surfaces. 

Practicing extreme cleanliness is more important now than ever. Hiring a professional to clean your home will ensure the job gets done right. But if you aren’t able to have a maid service in your home right now, or if you’re looking to keep up with cleanliness between visits, be sure to follow these steps to clean like the professionals do.

The trend of professional cleaning services has changed from cleaning for the purpose of ascetics to cleaning for health purposes. Like I’ve always said,” Just because your home smells clean doesn’t make it a healthy clean!” And here at Maid to Shine, our priority has always been on the health of our clients!