With the winter season right around the corner, you and your family can be exposed to germs that invite viruses into your home.  You can easily stop the spread of germs by “spring cleaning” your home.

Here are a few tips to keep your home cleaner and healthier this winter:

• Wash your hands. Your hands collect so many germs throughout the day because of everything you touch.  Make sure to thoroughly wash your hands after every bathroom use, before food preparation, handling money, and using anything that’s available to the public.
• Clean and disinfect surfaces. Germs can last for hours on surfaces such as kitchen tables, countertops, chopping boards and other hot spot surfaces in your home.  Make sure you’re wiping down these surfaces at least once a day with disinfecting cleaning products.
• Clean your floor. With dirty shoes, pets’ paws, and food crumbs and spills, germs are crawling all over your home’s floor.  Make sure to regularly clean your hardwood and tile floor surfaces using products that contain bleach, and regularly vacuum your carpets.
• Regularly wash your towels. Kitchen sponges and dish towels are the most germ-filled items in your home.  Not only are you using it for washing dishes, but you also use it wipe up spills, or for wiping your hands on a towel after touching foods. All this does is transfer germs from one place to the next.  Get into the habit of washing your sponges and towels using boiling water or an antibacterial cleaner.  When it comes to spills, make sure you opt for a disinfecting wipe.  And when you’re cooking, wipe your hands on a clean paper towel.
• Dust your home. Dust is composed of human skin cells, pet dander, dirt, and debris.  Not only does it make surfaces in your home look dingy, it can also present allergy and breathing problems for people in your home.  Dusting as a regular chore can make your home look a lot cleaner as well as protect family members.

Following these tips won’t guarantee that your home is germ-free, but it will help prevent you and your loved ones from getting sick.