Bleach Kills Coronavirus Too
If you’ve braved the crowd at your local store only to find that the sanitizer aisle was clean, you may be downright scared right now. Don’t give up all hope for now: The coronavirus panic may have wiped out national stocks of Clorox hand sanitizer and wipes, but I bet you still have a lot of bleach in your store.
Everyone was so focused on stocking alcohol-based cleaning products that we completely forgot about bleach, which works just as well and costs a lot less. As a former food service worker, I have always been involved in surface disinfection; the bleach works even at relatively low concentrations. Because it’s so concentrated, you don’t need bottles and bottles to survive the quarantine – even a half-empty jug in your laundry will do.
One important thing to know before you start dousing your home with bleach is that it is easily inactivated by organic substances such as food particles or hair. It doesn’t really matter much – it just means that your counters have to be clean for the bleach to actually sanitize them. If you wipe everything down with a regular surface cleaner first to make sure no bread crumbs or coffee grounds get stuck in your path, the bleach solution will work flawlessly.
For universal home disinfection of surfaces, CDC recommends mixing a solution of 5 tablespoons (1/3 cup) of regular, odorless household bleach per gallon of water . (If you don’t need a whole gallon of sanitizer, try 4 teaspoons per liter.) Put on gloves, spray or wipe the solution with any non-porous surface in your home, and let it air dry. Made. Just be aware that porous materials such as marble, porcelain, and untreated wood can be damaged by prolonged use of bleach. If you have them at home, be careful; use as little bleach as possible and wipe off excess or use hot water and soap.
Home surfaces aren’t the only thing that can collect germs – we carry all kinds of things with us in public. You can soak baby toys (plastic, non-electronic) in the bleach solution for about 30 minutes, which is especially helpful if they insist on taking that truck with them wherever they go, or if they’re just super stuff in their mouth. Unfortunately, bleach is too harsh to safely clean your phone screen, but a quick wipe on the sides and back should be fine . Plus, the only thing bleach can’t sanitize is your hands, but it takes soap and water – and ringing donut bites .