next post:
Looking for the best quick cleaning tips to disinfect your home? Look no further, here are some awesome ways to reduce germs in your home when you don’t have a lot of time!
Do you ever feel like you just need to get rid of germs but you don’t have a lot of time to do a full deep clean? Whether your kids just came home from school, or your family got home from the airport, germs are everywhere and often floating all over your home.
I have to admit, 2020 definitely turned me into a bit of a germaphobe. I’ve become a lot more cautious and aware of disinfecting my home and sanitizing common areas regularly.
If you can relate, this post is for you. I’m sharing some of my favorite quick cleaning tips to disinfect your home, most of which can be done in under just 1 hour.
This post is all quick cleaning tips.
Best Quick Cleaning Tips:
Steam Mop the Floors
I am a HUGE advocate of steam mopping the floors (lol). It’s one of my favorite quick cleaning tips to disinfect. It’s such a natural, non-toxic way to sanitize your floors, and it’s so easy to do. Steam kills 99.9% of household germs, including salmonella, E. Coli and Staphylococcus, as well as dust mites and surface mold. Once the water reaches 175-degrees F, it’ll sanitize the surfaces.
My simple process is to first vacuum the floors with my favorite Dyson vacuum. Then I use this amazing steam mop to mop the floors. What I love is that once the floors are mopped, we can just throw the mop cloth into the washer so there isn’t any waste. Also, to add some natural scent, I usually just drop a few drops of lemon or lime essential oils onto the inside of the mop cloth prior to putting it on to mop.
clean floor essentials
Sanitize Door Handles and Light Switches
This is really simple like you could give this chore to your 5-year-old. But I feel like it’s so overlooked. Ever since COVID happened, I started using Clorox wipes once a week to wipe down all doorknobs, light switches, cabinet pulls, and remote controls. Any things that everyone touches several times a day. I really think this is a simple and incredibly quick and easy way to just reduce contamination of these frequently touched surfaces.
RELATED POST: Best Cleaning Products to Maintain a Clean Home
Detoxifying Plants + Essential Oils
Ok I’m not sure if these necessarily sanitize the air, but they definitely generally help to reduce toxins and just purify the air that you breathe so why not. If you have a green thumb, there are a ton of plants that help to reduce chemicals in the air like formaldehyde, and carbon monoxide. If you’re into plants and what to see which ones are “clean” here’s a whole article on the best plants to detoxify your home and which chemicals they actually reduce.
Also, essential oils are a natural way to purify the air, make it smell fresh and clean, and also have health-benefits rather than harm like most candles which can be incredibly toxic. I use and love this oil diffuser, and I always use essential oils from Plant Therapy because they are non-toxic and naturally sourced.
Here are some clean-air diffuser combinations:
- Eucalyptus / Lavender
- Eucalyptus / Geranium
- Eucalyptus / Lemon
- Eucalyptus / Lemon / Thyme
- Lavender / Geranium / Lemon
- Clove / Cinnamon / Thyme
- Tea Tree / Lemon
shop essential oils
Open the Windows
Letting your home air out whenever the weather permits is always a good idea. Increasing airflow and getting fresh air in the home lets mother nature do it’s job and circulate some fresh oxygenated air from outside. I definitely recommend doing this whenever possible, to allow old air particles to get out of your house and let the new ones come in. This is an easy, simple and quick way to keep fresh, clean air circulating throughout your home.
Wash Your Hands
This seems like a common-sense quick cleaning tip, but you’d be surprised at how many people don’t wash their hands very often. I HIGHYL recommend making a habit for you and everyone else in your house to wash your hands the second you walk in the door from being out and about. We touch so much stuff in the world and to come into our homes and touch everything with all those germs is kind of just, well, gross!
If you make it a habit, it’ll be second nature and you won’t even have to think about it. It’s not quite a quick cleaning tip, but it will help to prevent the spread of more germs on all your light switches and doorknobs. This is just a very basic, tip that could help reduce the spread of germs by a landslide with very minimal effort.
Important Tip: You’ll just want to make sure that the soap you use is labeled antibacterial because there are many out there that don’t actually kill germs.
No More Shoes
There have been countless research studies showing that shoes carry hundreds. Of. Thousands. Yes, that’s right, like 400,000+ bacteria on them. EW!! These studies have found E. Coli all over shoes.
Just Google this and see for yourself how gross it is to wear shoes in the house. Especially if you have carpet because it’s harder to clean. Once you read about this. I guarantee you will no longer allow shoes in your house anymore. That alone will reduce the amount of bacteria on your floor by hundreds of thousands.
Use a Disinfectant Surface Cleaner
I use to be really big on non-toxic things. I mean, I still am, but some things it can be tough to go all natural on. For example, a lot of natural surface cleaners actually are not very powerful in killing bacteria. Surface cleaner is one thing I’m not really afraid to use chemicals for.
Whenever buying a surface cleaner, I always look for the “Kills 99.9% Bacteria” on the front of the bottle. Also, did you know you are suppose to spray this on the counter and let it sit for several minutes? I didn’t know that either until recently!
So often we just spray and wipe (ok I still do that usually, to be honest). But we’re actually suppose to spray, wait a few minutes, THEN wipe. This gives the chemicals time to actually do their job and kill all the bacteria.
My quick cleaning tip: Spray, do something else like dishes, vacuum, etc. then wipe away the germs!
Close the Toilet When Flushing
Ok taken directly from The Today Show, just read how gross this is:
When you pull the lever, in addition to taking whatever business you’ve left behind down into the sewer pipes, your toilet also releases something called “toilet plume” into the air — which is basically a spray filled with microscopic bacteria, including E. coli. According to research from 1975, the germs emitted in the spray can linger in the air for up to six hours, and disperse themselves all over your bathroom … including on your toothbrush, towels and beauty products.
So yeah, enough said about that. Please just shut the toilet when you flush and FORCE everyone else in your house to do the same lol. Another super-easy way to reduce even more thousands of germs in the air!
RELATED POST: The Ultimate Cleaning Checklist Template to Make Your Home Sparkle
Disinfect Your Kitchen Sink
Plug the sink and fill it with the hottest water possible. Splash in some bleach and allow it to soak. Scrub the sink, edges, and faucet, then rinse a few times. This process should be done at least 1x per week. This is something that you could add to your monthly cleaning checklist. You can download the free checklist here!
Clean Your Kitchen Sponge
One of the best quick cleaning tips to clean your kitchen sponge is to simply put it in a bowl of water and put it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. This method has been said to zap 99.9% of germs. This process should be done at least 1x per week.
