Fantastic cleaning tips for Covid-19

Fantastic tips in maintaining your furniture through the pandemic.

It is becoming well documented in aspects of cleaning throughout this pandemic on how to clean the new strain of Covid-19 especially with hard to touch services within your home.

The method of hand sanitiser for your hands and warm water and disinfectant for hard services is now becoming commonplace. The use of antibacterial sprays is another formula becoming more commonly used, however when it comes to your treasured items within the home how do we clean our carpet, and upholstery as these items are not simply washed.

Laundry

Providing the items fabrics are not temperature-sensitive we can simply wash these to keep the spread down.  During this time it is recommended to wear products that are washable at 60° as this will break the envelope of the virus providing you are using a good detergent.

High-touch surfaces 

Such as worktop counters tiled floors and laminated floors can be generally cleaned with a disinfectant and warm water if concentrated as the Covid-19 is an illness caused by SARS-CoV-2, which is a Coronavirus. 

Coronaviruses have been around for a long time and belong to a group known as ‘enveloped viruses. Although this is acknowledged to be a new virus with no tried and tested way of cleaning because of the lack of research there is evidence to suggest because of its strain and it being a basic envelope, virus methods used in previous illnesses are being adopted as the first point of call with this.

Such cleaning methods could be found on Covid-19 to cleaning in non healthcare setting at.Covid-19 gov.uk.

 

 Household furnishing cleaning

However there are other items within your household which can’t be easily cleaned  such as you new beautiful sofa or curtains and carpet without the right equipment as trying to clean with the  same methods as a hard surface will often damage your upholstery and cabinets.

Imagine cleaning down with a bleached cloth or high in disinfectant on a delicate fabric  or cabinet this can often damage your items  leading to more upset.

Understanding the virus in simple terms as we mentioned is an envelope virus where the envelope is quite fragile and subjected to change in temperature and pH levels and disinfectants.

Cleaning method

One method that can be used on your soft furnishings  is steam, this is a natural way of cleaning and with the temperature of steam being 66-149° Celsius it is being acknowledged that this can break the envelope of the virus making your less easier cleaning service bacterial free And limiting the risk of the spread.

 Imagine for one minute that you’ve been out in the supermarket and someone has sneezed contaminating the flooring before you enter the  shopping aisle.  Is becoming more aware that on hard services this can be around for 72 hours and can be easily transferred from that point to your car and your home.

 If you like myself who have children this is a growing worrying time especially with them playing on the floor.

It is becoming more acknowledged that steam in these instances are a great way of cleaning your flooring and killing the bacteria as the heat of the steam  has the ability to rupture  the delicate envelope of the virus killing it.

With testing times ahead we are resulting to using a method that has been used for cleaning for the last decades.

Cabinets and furnishings that have a laminated finish or high lacquered finish can be cleaned on the odd occasion with a disinfectant watered-down and  warm damp cloth with a dry cloth straight after.   A more delicate cabinet furnishings   many of the steamers come with a handheld attachment that simply puff out the steam in which of this is hovered over the items and a dry cloth is used afterwards this can remove bacteria without damaging the polishes. Alternatively polishes used in our antique restoration have a bacterial substance to them and can also equally change the pH making it less inhabitable for the virus.

This is quite similar to fogging without the chemicals which in due course will be more established technique of cleaning and combating bacteria and virus’s and will be shortly posting an article on professional cleaning using this state-of-the-art method which we already provide within our company

In the meantime general steaming techniques can be used and appear to be useful in combating the spread within your home safeguarding your Furnishings