Cummins Facility Services: Cleaning tips to preserve sanity during holidays

This holiday season will likely look different for many families as we continue to navigate Covid-19. While you may not be hosting holiday parties or welcoming dozens of friends and relatives into your home, many of us are feeling a pressing responsibility to keep our homes as clean and safe as possible, while maintaining sanity and enjoying the season. I have compiled some tips to help you crush your holiday cleaning strategy in the coming weeks.

First, the front door
What is the place in your home that welcomes every person? Your front door! From family members, delivery drop offs, and quick pop-ins, your front door sees more people than any other point in the house. Be sure to wipe down doorknobs each day, taking special time for all-over cleaning on a regular basis. Don’t forget doorbells, mailboxes, lock keypads and any other high-touch point near the entryway.

Make it fun with hand sanitizer stations
Hand sanitizer has become a bigger part of our days than we could have ever imagined. If I’m having a guest stop by, I like to welcome them with a fun hand sanitizer station. At this station, I have a few favorite scents of hand sanitizer, some sanitizer sprays and paper towels. I also leave a few disposable masks out in case the visitor is not already wearing one. The station grabs their attention and serves as a subtle reminder to sanitize and wear a mask, while making it fun for the guest! These stations are also great checkpoints for household members each time they return from work or errands. I have them at all the entrance areas of my home!

Tackle the touchpoints
Once per week, I make it a goal to tackle all the high touchpoints in my home with extra cleaning treatments. These include surfaces like door handles, including cabinet knobs in the bathroom and kitchen. The refrigerator and freezer handles are some of the most frequently touched spots in the home, as well as microwave and oven handles. When covering the family room, be sure to clean television remotes and
game controllers.

One of the biggest touchpoints of all? Your phone! The key to cleaning phones is allowing for dwell time. You
can check the dwell time of nearly every cleaning supply on the back of the bottle or box. Be sure that you’re
allowing all of these items their maximum clean potential with the right dwell time.

Don’t skip your vehicle
Many of us think of keeping our homes and workspaces clean, but equally important are our vehicles! Your steering wheel, turn signal and wiper levers, door handles, seatbelts, and control buttons all need cleaned frequently, along with any other high-touch areas in the car. Vehicles are especially at risk for contaminants, since they’re the transition place between stops, often with multiple people in a family
utilizing the same car. Be sure to have ample hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes available and make it a goal to clean your car after every few uses.

The power of fresh air
We’ve heard time and time again that outdoor spaces are safer amid coronavirus. If we’re lucky enough to get some mild to seasonally warmer temperatures, be sure to take advantage of the opportunity to cleanse your home with fresh air! Open up windows and doors to allow new, clean airflow into all rooms in your home.

If you do plan to entertain any guests, do so outdoors whenever possible with ample
air flow. Break out the blankets and hand warmers or use a firepit to keep cozy if you
have one. Moving interactions outdoors whenever possible will help your home stay clean and your family
and guests stay safe.

 

Be empowered with boundaries
It might sound simple, but setting your boundaries as a family is key to truly feeling safe and happy while at home during the holiday season. No two families are the same, and there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to how to navigate this time of year with Covid-19 causing concern. Sit down with your household and establish boundaries for things like vehicle travel, the number of guests allowed in the household, if any, and your comfort levels for safety measures like mask wearing, indoor vs. outdoor seating and more. Ultimately, making sure everyone in your home is on the same page is the best way to limit stress in the coming weeks.

While we may celebrate differently this year, I hope everyone has a peaceful, joyous holiday season.

Happy Holidays.
Jill Frey, President & CEO
Cummins Facility Services, LLC