People may have emptied marts due to panic shopping, so don’t freak out if you don’t find hand sanitisers or Clorox wipes. It’s assumed your neighbourhood store will still have plenty of bleach.
While most people have been stocking up alcohol-based cleaners, we seem to have forgotten about bleach which works equally well and, on a plus side, even costs a lot less. Bleach has been a go-to product for disinfecting surfaces even at relatively low concentrations. Since it’s already so concentrated, you won’t need many bottles of it to survive a quarantine; even a half-empty jug in your laundry room will suffice.
Do remember that bleach is easily inactivated by organic material such as hair or food particles. Just make sure your counters are clean so that bleach can actually disinfect them.
To carry out an all-purpose household disinfection, the CDC recommends mixing a solution of 5 tablespoons of regular/unscented household bleach per gallon of water. Use gloves, spray/wipe the solution on any non-porous surface at home and let the air dry it. Do keep in mind that porous materials (porcelain, marble, unfinished wood etc) can be damaged by long-term bleach use; if you have these at home, proceed with caution and use as little bleach as possible.
Household surfaces aren’t the only germ-collecting vectors; we carry all sorts of stuff in public. You can soak your children’s toys (plastic/non-electronic) in a bleach solution for almost half an hour. Unfortunately, bleach is too harsh for your phone screen but a quick wipe on the sides and back would be harmless. The only thing bleach can’t disinfect, is your hands. You can use regular soap and water for that.
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
