Disinfecting Your Home by Room
Disinfect your home, room by room
Get the information you need to keep your home safe & squeaky-clean during COVID-19.
Shower
Remove bath mats and other items from their usual place. Pre-wash the tub and tiles, then wipe the tub and shower with a bleach solution. Wait 6 minutes, then rinse with warm water to fully disinfect.
Toilet
Flush first, then add ½ cup of toilet bowl cleaner to the water in the bowl. Scrub with a toilet brush and let stand for 6 minutes before flushing again. Disinfect the seat and handle with a surface cleaner.
Surfaces
Disinfecting wipes are an easy way to quickly clean toilets, sinks, showers, tubs and surfaces. Use a fresh wipe to disinfect surfaces and keep them wet for 4 minutes before drying. A dry wipe isn’t effective.
Finishing up
Once you’re done cleaning and disinfecting your bathroom, change your clothes and put them in a hamper to avoid cross-contamination. If you wore reusable gloves, give those a good rinse too.
Disinfecting the bedroom
Once a day, disinfect commonly touched surfaces in your bedroom like light switches, bedside tables, drawer pulls, doorknobs and window latches with a disinfecting wipe or bleach solution. Don’t forget to disinfect your cell phone and TV remote, too. After you clean the room, wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds.
Shared laundry rooms
If you share a laundry room with others in your building, be sure to disinfect all hard, nonporous surfaces you come in contact with and stay 6 feet apart from others in the laundry room at the same time as you.
Living with essential workers
If someone you live with needs to leave on a daily basis, encourage them to put their clothes in the hamper or laundry bag as soon as they get home. They should not re-wear any clothing until after it’s been re-laundered.
After handling laundry
After leaving the laundry room or touching dirty clothes, remember to wash your hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. Avoid touching your face or any other items while you’re in the laundry room.
Sanitizing towels & bed sheets
Wash bleach-safe bed sheets and towels in the hottest water recommended, using a good detergent and about a ⅔ cup bleach. Make sure the bleach contacts the load for 10 minutes.
Bedding should be washed at least weekly, and towels semi-weekly. When handling dirty bed sheets and towels, the CDC recommends avoiding shaking laundry to minimize dispersing the virus into the air. Wear gloves and keep your dirty laundry in a hamper lined with a washable laundry bag or plastic bag, if you can. Wash your hands when you’re done.
Steps for disinfecting your desk & more
Use a non-bleach-based disinfectant throughout the day to keep your monitor, keyboard, mouse and phone clean.
Or, wipe down surfaces with a disinfectant wipe and keep them wet for 4 minutes to sufficiently kill off germs.
Do your best to avoid getting your devices wet. Don’t submerge your products in disinfectants or cleaners.
Use a disinfecting wipe on your desktop, drawers, door handles, lamps and light switches. Keep surfaces wet for 4 minutes to properly disinfect them.
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