How to disinfect a room amid the Coronavirus outbreak? Read to know more

With the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, it is essential to keep your home and your body sanitised. Disinfecting a room is one of the best ways to keep it free of deadly virus and other infectious pathogens. Usually, a room is disinfected only when someone with infection was residing inside it.

However, with the rampant spread of Coronavirus, disinfecting a room is essential to prevent the spread of the disease in your house. If you want to properly disinfect/sanitize a room in your house, then here are all the steps that you must follow to kill off the pathogens inside. 

How to disinfect a room

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1- Cleaning walls and floors with a strong alcohol solution

• [Image by Ed Ben Ari on Unsplash]

The first step in disinfecting a room is to clean the walls, floor and ceiling. To do this, you need to use a strong alcohol solution, composed of one part water and two parts 99% rubbing alcohol. 99% Alcohol is one of the best disinfectants and is also easily available.

Alternatively, you can use one part water and one part vinegar (undiluted) to create your cleaning solution. Once you have mixed the water and alcohol, you need to rub the solution over your walls, floor and ceiling.

However, make sure that your room can handle the solution you are using. If the solution is too powerful it might damage your room's walls and floor. Once you rub the solution all over the room, you need to wait for five minutes as the air dries. Once the solution has dried, repeat the step a few more times to disinfect the walls and floor as much as possible. 

2- Sanitising furniture and other small objects

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• [Image by CDC on Unsplash]

Cleaning your walls and floor is not enough to properly sanitize your room. All objects present inside the room, including furniture and small objects, such as pens, laptops, phones, pencils etcetera, need to be surface wiped. Do not remove these objects from your room, especially if the room was home to a sick person. Any object that was inside the room can also act as a vector for disease. 

If your furniture is resilient, you can use the same solution you used to clean your walls and floors. However, most furniture is delicate, therefore you cannot use a strong 99% alcohol solution to clean them. To sanitise your furniture, try to buy disinfecting sprays that are not very powerful. You will also need to surface wipe basic objects.

Even small objects such as pencils should be wiped if you want to perfectly sanitize your room. You will need to be extremely cautious while cleaning electronics such as TVs and laptops. It is better to use dry tissues to wipe electronics, as contact with liquid could potentially damage them.

However, if you have a gauze pad, you can be surface wipe all your items, including electronics, with rubbing alcohol. Gauze pad retains excess liquid, so only the bare minimum will be in contact with your items. But always be cautious of damage by cleaning expensive objects. All non-essential paper items should be disposed of. 

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3- Change bedsheets and wash all clothes

• [Image by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash]

In the room has a bed, change the bedsheets immediately. Thoroughly wash the sheet and let it air dry. If you have space in your house, wash your mattress as well and leave it out to dry. Also, wash other cloth items such as pillow covers and curtains. All fabrics must be washed thoroughly to properly disinfect a room. 

You will also need to wash your cupboard and the clothes inside them. If you are washing the clothes of a sick person, do not hug them close to your body, as that could easily spread the infection. All dirty clothes and fabrics should be put in the middle of a sheet so that they can be carried off to the washing area in a makeshift bag. Wash the clothes in hot water along with bleach. Wash them multiple times if you are unsatisfied with their sanitisation. 

4- Bathrooms and final steps

If there is a bathroom connected to the room, then you need to clean it as well. Follow the same steps above to clean your bathroom. After cleaning everything inside the room, you need to disinfect your cleaning mop/cloth by putting it in a strong bleach solution for 20 minutes.

Also, make sure to clean and surface wipe the room's dustbin before putting in a new garbage bag. If your room has an Air Conditioner, then you need to change its filters as well. After all the steps are completed, open up your door and windows to ventilate your room. 

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