How to Sanitize Your Home and Car from Coronavirus COVID-19

EPA Approved Products Will Help Keep Your Home Germ-Free

Even though the coronavirus has us all boarded up inside, we still need to go out occasionally for essential items, like food at the grocery store, take-out and curbside orders from restaurants, and prescriptions from the pharmacy. And we should be cautious of surfaces we touch in public, like shopping carts, and be aware of the germs we might bring into our homes.  As we adjust to the new reality of COVID-19 as a pandemic, we have to get used to doing things a little differently. For one, we need to keep things disinfected more.  Here's how to avoid the coronavirus with these practical tips on sanitizing your home and car.

Disinfecting Your Home

disinfect clean and sanitize your kitchen

Washing your hands frequently is obviously one of the best steps you can take to stop the spread of COVID-19.  Hopefully, everyone has heard that enough and has put it into practice. But the virus can still cling to surfaces we carry with us into our homes, like our clothes, shoes, debit card and even our phone. The EPA has released a long list of products that are considered effective at killing the virus. These are to be used on surface areas, not humans.  The link to the EPA list is below.

https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/list-n-disinfectants-use-against-sars-cov-2

The list includes cleaning products like Clorox, Lysol, Microban and hydrogen peroxide. You can use these products to sanitize all the surfaces in your home. Make sure you focus on cleaning all the doorknobs, countertops and other high-traffic areas during your deep clean. Since everyone is home, why not make it a family affair?

5 Ways to Sanitize Your Home

Here are five ways to quickly sanitize your home.

  1. Use Disinfectant Wipes to Clean Hard Surfaces on things you touch multiple times a day -- doorknobs, sinks, cabinet handles, refrigerator doors, remote controls.
  2. Clean Surfaces with Disinfectant Spray on areas like your couch and carpet that can't be wiped down and kill unseen germs.
  3. Use a Bleach Mixture to Clean Floors - Your shoes step on a lot of nasty stuff during the day, and if you don't take them off when you come into the house, you might track in viruses as well as other germs. To clean the floors in your kitchen and bathroom, the CDC recommends using 1 cup of bleach mixed with 5 gallons of water to mop your floors.  Take note that you will need a different disinfectant for porous floors.  In other words, don’t use bleach on hardwood as it can remove the stain color. Use a disinfecting wet mop cloth on your hardwood floors or combine half a cup of white vinegar and 1 gallon of water.
  4. Clean up with hydrogen peroxide - the CDC says that 3% hydrogen peroxide was able to inactivate rhinovirus within eight minutes. When you pour the hydrogen peroxide directly on to surfaces like your sinks, countertops or toilets, it should soak for around 10 to 15 minutes to effectively do its job. After it sits, scrub the area and then rinse thoroughly with water.
  5. Keep your home protected with Microban 24 – this is not on the EPA’s list (yet), but the company says when used as a disinfectant as directed, it is effective at killing viruses including the novel coronavirus.

 

Sanitizing Your Car

sanitize your car touchscreen

While you're out, you can easily get exposed to germs and viruses that follow you back into your car. A good idea is to sanitize your car every day. Car door handles and controls, keys, start button, steering wheel, gear shift, seats, buttons and knobs on the dash, sun visor, anything touchscreen, console and cup holders.

 

You can use disinfectant wipes on most surfaces, but don’t use them on leather and touchscreens. There are specific wipes made for cleaning leather. If your car has a touchscreen, you'll want to use a microfiber cloth to wipe it down (unless the manual says otherwise). If you have cloth seats, a spray like Lysol is works effectively if given time to dry.