As much as we all hate to admit it, there are more than a few areas in the home that are overlooked on cleaning day. If your forgotten zones happen to be high-touch areas, you might want to jot down this list.
From the kitchen cabinet handles to the remote control sitting on your couch, there are plenty of high-touch areas that could use a thorough wipe-down.
What Are High-Touch Areas?
High-touch areas are surfaces in the home that are frequently touched by one’s hands. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends regularly cleaning and disinfecting high-touch surfaces.
To reduce the spread of germs, those specified areas must be cleaned and disinfected as often as every day or every few days. Before you grab your bottle of multipurpose cleaner from under the sink, it’s essential to understand your cleaning products and how they are formulated.
Multi-surface all-purpose cleaners are fantastic for shining up your counters and giving your home a fresh scent, but they are not meant to remove bacteria, and viruses like disinfectant chemicals do. Disinfecting sprays are formulated to kill microbes that can make you sick, so using these on high-touch areas is crucial.
Clorox disinfecting mist kills up to 99.9% of bacteria on surfaces, including viruses that cause COVID-19. Plus, the citrusy scent leaves your home smelling fresh and lovely. Reach for these when it’s time to wipe down those frequently handled spots in your home.
Kitchen
The kitchen is a busy room where you’ll find all members of the household taking turns grabbing snacks and constantly opening cabinets and fridge doors. You might not give it all that much thought, but there are loads of germs lingering in areas you might not think of.
Between the fridge door handle and appliances you love most, you’ll want to reach for your disinfecting spray for these areas:
- Faucet handle: It might seem silly to think, but your kitchen sink, which is filled with soap suds, holds lots of germs. The faucet handle specifically gets lots of hand contact, especially before handwashing occurs.
- Fridge door: From grabbing snacks to cross-contaminating throughout your cooking session, your fridge door is doomed without a regular spray and wipe-down.
- Cupboard handles: Some cupboard knobs and pantry handles are touched more than others. The key is finding your most commonly utilized cupboards and giving the handles a quick disinfecting spray and wipe.
- Appliance knobs: Think about how often you use your oven, toaster, and coffee maker. If you use them daily, you might also want to consider disinfecting them that often.
- Microwave door: With all that nuking you do during the week, the microwave door handle and buttons are no doubt germ-ridden.
Living Room
The kitchen may be the hot spot for germy hands, but there are a few select areas where germs seem to linger in the living room as well. Before whipping out your cleaning supplies, take the time to tidy up the room and organize all your stuff first.
Once your living room is clean and clutter-free, you can move on to disinfecting some of the high-touch areas that need attention. The most common spots include:
- The remote control: How many times a day do you pick up your remote control to watch your favorite Netflix series? Spray a damp cloth with disinfectant, then wipe it to avoid damaging your remote.
- Game controllers: Whether you own an Xbox, PlayStation, or any other gaming console, you know those controllers are often touched. Just like the remote, spray your towel, then wipe the device to avoid getting any liquid under the buttons.
- Front door handles: Door handles are some of the most frequently touched areas in the home, so be sure to disinfect the inside and outside handles often.
- Light switches: Electricity and liquid don’t mix well, so do not directly spray your light switches. Instead, use a damp cloth with disinfectant spray and wipe the switches.
- Hand railing: If you have a staircase nearby, then be sure to wipe down that hand railing now and then. Considering it is designed for hand contact and support going up and down the stairs, you’ll appreciate keeping it germ-free for everyone in the home.
Disposable wipes come in handy in areas like the living room, where you should avoid spraying some of those high-touch areas. The multi-surface cleaners freshen surfaces while also killing up to 99.9% of germs on items like remotes, controllers, and light switches.
Bathrooms
Home bathrooms get a lot of activity. From family members to friends and other guests using your bathroom, you’ll find plenty of germ-ridden locations that need some attention.
The top five include:
- Toilet handle: The toilet handle is touched every time someone uses it, generally before hands are washed. Enough said. Make sure you disinfect that spot daily using a disposable paper towel.
- Faucet handles: The faucet handle is another place that is touched before the hands are properly washed with soap and water. Make sure to spray and scrub.
- Shower handle: The easiest way to clean your shower is to do it while you’re taking a shower. Follow this housekeeper’s genius shower cleaning hack to shine up the faucet handle and walls of the shower moving forward.
- Medicine cabinet: If you open that medicine cabinet door often, you should clean it just as often too.
- Vanity doors: You can probably get away with cleaning these less often than other high-touch areas, but at the very least, disinfect vanity door handles on a weekly basis.
Bedrooms & Office Space
Bedrooms and home offices need special attention too. In order to keep your bedrooms and home offices fresh and clutter-free, start by tidying up your space. Once it is orderly, you can move on to disinfecting some of the high-touch areas.
- Door handles: Door handles are some of the most frequently touched areas in any home. Every time you enter a bedroom, the doorknob must be touched. The same goes for closet doors. Be sure to give them a good wipe.
- Dresser knobs: Similar to door and closet door handles, if you open these up daily, they should probably be cleaned daily.
- Computer mouse: The computer mouse gets a lot of hand contact, but chances are, it doesn’t get disinfected often. Use a damp towel with disinfectant spray to help remove germs.
- Computer keyboard: There are a few different ways to clean a desktop computer keyboard, depending on how deep of a clean you plan on doing. How-To Geek’s mouse and keyboard cleaning tutorial will give you a thorough overview of how to get the task done.
- Office desk: The surface of your desk should also be disinfected regularly too, especially if you eat at your desk often.
Your home is filled with high-touch areas that could use special attention from your bottle of disinfectant spray. Beyond that handy disinfectant chemical, you’ll find many viral cleaning products that work well in other home parts.
