Top tips for sanitizing your home

(BPT) - As you’re spending more time at home, you’re probably looking for the best ways to keep your living environment clean, safe and healthy. Where do you start? What kinds of tools or products work best for sanitizing? Fortunately, achieving and maintaining a cleaner, more germ-free home is within your grasp.

Here are some tips for eliminating as many potentially harmful viruses or bacteria in your home as possible, along with strategies for tackling these jobs.

Start with a walk-through

Take a tour of your home, imagining everyone going about their day. What items and surfaces do you touch? You've probably thought of doorknobs, but that’s just a start:

• Handrails, banisters
• Refrigerator, freezer door handles
• Cupboard/drawer knobs
• Faucets
• Light switches
• Kitchen appliances, including microwaves
• Kettle, coffee pot handles
• Remote controls, keys
• Phones
• Kitchen counters, stovetops
• And more

The items and areas you and your family use and handle frequently should be cleaned every day — or even more often, especially when members of your household need to go out into the world and return home.

One highly effective strategy for cleaning and sanitizing small areas — including doorknobs — is using steam heat. Heat from the vapor molecules kills viruses and bacteria, plus other pathogens like mold, fleas, flea eggs and dust mites. The result? A sanitized, deodorized and hypoallergenic surface.

How do you clean with steam?

The Reliable Pronto 100CH is a great tool to get you started. It's a handheld steam cleaner that uses the power of steam at temperatures from 302-320 degrees Fahrenheit to kill germs and bacteria without harsh chemicals — just water. With this easy-to-use cleaner you can tackle small jobs, and its attachments help you sanitize even hard-to-wash areas including fabrics, bedding and mattresses. You can use it on everything from car door handles and bathroom grout to stovetops and refrigerator doors.

Steam cleaning the most frequently touched surfaces in your home often can give you peace of mind, knowing that you're helping to reduce your family's risk of illness.

For electronic gadgets including phones, computers and tablets that can’t be cleaned using water for risk of damaging them, check manufacturers' websites for instructions on safely sanitizing these items to protect your health.

Create a clean foundation

Don’t forget to look down when you’re considering what needs cleaning. Especially when people come and go from the house, cleaning the floor regularly is crucial for a safer, healthier home. Viruses and bacteria can live on shoes for days, and you’re tracking them all over your home every time you walk around.

Steam cleaning floors is also a very effective approach to reducing germs throughout your home. Whether you have wood floors or other types of flooring, using steam is much safer for your entire family than harsh, potentially toxic chemicals you would be breathing in for days after they’re applied. Steam cleaning your floors helps maintain a healthy home that’s safe for kids and pets.

Try the Reliable Steamboy 300CU Steam Mop, which won Good Housekeeping's "Best Overall Steam Mop" in 2019. All you need to add is water for a deep, sanitized and chemical-free clean. The Steam Mop includes a triangle swivel head to easily clean corners, along with a scrub brush you can use for grout.

Using this tool kills 99% of germs and bacteria in an environmentally friendly way — even avoiding the plastic waste you would have generated using bottles of chemical cleaners.

Be thorough

For a complete clean, you may want to consider equipment you can use on a wide variety of surfaces, to safely sanitize every room of the house. The Brio 225CC Home Steam Cleaning System offers the best of both worlds — you can use it to steam clean everything from the floors to the windows, plus fabrics and more. It comes with a 17-piece accessory kit with attachments to tackle any area of the house.

Using high-pressure steam to sanitize your whole house lets you breathe easier, knowing you're using the most effective, chemical-free sanitizing technique available to help keep everyone safer and healthier.

To learn more about steam cleaning your home, visit ReliableCorporation.com.