8 Ways to Clean your House After You’ve Been Sick

What is the best method to clean your phone or other electronic devices?

Whether you wash your hands often or you use hand sanitizer when you are in public spaces, it does not mean that you won’t contaminate them again after touching your phone, because your phone is the favorite place of microbes. So, besides hand washing, we should clean our electronic devices more frequently as well, especially during the coronavirus outbreak. 

First step: is to gently wipe your phone with a microfiber cloth. Of course, the cloth should be clean because it is important to remove all the smudges and fat spots or fingerprints. “This will physically remove germs, due to the friction between the cloth and the glass surface,” said Carolyn Forte, the director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab. Thus, this method won’t actually kill the germs. Remember that you should never spray anything directly onto your phone!

Step two: you can opt for Lysol disinfecting products because they are marketed as being safe for cleaning your electronic devices. “If the wipe is excessively wet, wring it out first,” says Forte. If you do not have access to this product, you can spray some sanitary alcohol on a microfiber cloth and then gently wipe all the surfaces of your phone, except ports. 

Step three: let your phone air dry for a few minutes, because some disinfectants are more effective if they are left to air dry on surfaces for at least five minutes. Nevertheless, whether you choose to do this or not, you should know that, in general, any alcohol based products sanitize your electronic devices greatly. So, do not worry about it!

Step four: Wipe away any leftover moisture, but do this with a clean cloth. “Some microfiber cloths can be bleached, but not all. Dirty clothes should be cleaned regularly to avoid re-depositing soil back on surfaces and prevent the spread of germs. Regular washcloths can be washed with bleach. Both regular and microfiber cloths can also be boiled for a few minutes,” Forte says.

Step five: You should repeat the same process with your phone case as well. You can even use other cleaning products in this case, but you should take into consideration that bleach based products can’t be used leather or fabric phone accessories.

Well, now you have a clean and disinfected phone and you can repeat the process with other electronic devices as well, such as computers, laptops, tablets and TVs.