With flu viruses, swine and otherwise, heading everywhere this winter, tidying up your house is a strong defense against the spread of disease. This Old House offers a few tactics for keeping your house from becoming a carrier.The veritable home improvement site suggests a few highly-trafficked, germ-catching areas, like television remotes and desk surfaces, to clean regularly. But the items you clean with, like hand sponges, mops, and rags, should themselves be cleaned up to prevent spreading, according to Charles Gerba, author of The Germ Freak's Guide to Outwitting Colds and Flu:
Beware of dust rags, dishrags, mops and other cleaning tools. Unless sanitized between uses, they only spread around the germs you are trying to kill. 'It's a free ride for the virus,' says Gerba. Some of the cleanest houses he's tested had the highest germ counts. And get this: a few untidy bachelor pads tested very low for germs, which he attributes to lazy housekeeping. 'They don't move anything around, everything is in the sink or the garbage.'Allergy Consumer Review recommends color-coding mops, or at least their handles, for different areas of the house, and dunking the heads in sanitizing solution for 15-20 minutes after each use. And we always recommend disinfecting sponges in the microwave—but only when they're wet, unless you enjoy making the evening news.
How to Flu-Proof Your Home [This Old House]
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