Clean like Your Mama’s Haitian and You Don’t Want to Start All Over Again — Coronavirus Edition

I was raised in a family of nurses, volunteered in the ER, and nursing homes in high school, and am certified in food safety. This means I’m always aware of cross-contamination and have to keep it to myself.

But for this brief moment in time…I. DON’T. HAVE. TO.

My mother used to make me start all over again if I half-assed cleaning. Not just fix what I didn’t do to her standards but start from the beginning. You learn pretty quickly that it’s best to do it right the first time.

Saturdays were cleaning days at our house and one couldn’t deviate from the schedule. She often worked weekends so I’d wake up on Saturday mornings to Ajax sprinkled in the sink and tub, so there was no getting around it, I had to clean the bathroom before I could even start my day.

I hated this as a kid. But as with many things with adulthood comes perspective. And a lot of folks could’ve used that same upbringing. Do I do things exactly as my mama does in her house? No, but the foundation of my cleaning and sanitizing practices are from her and my aunts.

Here are some habits that I’ve developed over the years that are particularly helpful during a pandemic, which is unfortunately where we now find ourselves.

Know that there are levels to this: we don’t necessarily need to function as if we’re about to perform open-heart surgery on someone and don’t want to introduce any pathogens that might kill them.

At the same time, it seems like a lot of the ‘basics’ are not universally known or practiced… We’ll address that another day.

So perhaps some of this you’re already doing, or maybe there are a couple of things that hadn’t occurred to you.

Now, I’m not always the neatest person, it took me years to get to a point where I make my bed every day. And I just did a deep decluttering of my apartment last year, and even with that, a minimalist, I will never be. But the key takeaway: Neat is not necessarily clean. They go together but they’re not interchangeable.

Even at my laziest where the clothes piled at the end of the bed threatened to overtake it, what has always been non-negotiable is that I have a clean bathroom and a clean kitchen. Always. And if I’m cooking for others, I’m even more diligent about sanitizing everything and preventing cross-contamination.

Right now, preventing cross-contamination and stopping the transmission of the virus is the name of the game. Here’s how we do it.

What does that mean? I wash my hands A LOT (see diagram below for ‘how’). We all know to wash our hands after using the bathroom, yet not everyone does. Well, now you better. With soap. Count 20 seconds. (Lots of ideas on the internet about how to do this.)

Hand-Washing Technique Diagram (Source)

Beyond that, I wash my hands before handling food. Even if I use the bathroom, wash my hands, and then I’m immediately going to start cooking, guess what? I wash my hands again. Better safe than sorry.

I sanitize countertops and fixtures a lot in the bathroom and the kitchen using Clorox wipes, or a bleach solution. I regularly sanitize door handles and light switches, especially if I’ve had folks over to my house. Not all hand washing is created equal. If I’m handling food that’s not going to be cooked — like say raw greens, I use gloves. Anything that’s going to be cooked, the heat will kill the germs. That said, put some gloves on when handling poultry. Good old health department rules.

With Coronavirus making the rounds, I’ve stepped up my diligence when it comes to cleaning and sanitizing things. Being lax right now could have a potentially larger impact. If you’re around babies, pregnant women, the elderly, and other at-risk populations, the precautions you take helps to protect them. This issue isn’t just about us as individuals.

So here’s my normal and then how I’ve stepped it up in the past few weeks.

(Source)

Personal

Random Tuesday

1. Wash hands often and thoroughly (Happy Birthday 2x or any other song’s chorus for that matter)
2. Wash hands thoroughly after using the bathroom
3. Wash hands before cooking
4. Wash hands after handling raw proteins (meat, poultry, fish, etc)
5. Wash hands after taking out the garbage
6. Sanitize phone and a laptop once a week or so
7. No shoes in the house, mostly

Random Tuesday during a Pandemic

1. All of the above
2. Wash hands as soon as I enter the apartment (whether I stepped out to do laundry, check the mail, put the garbage out, whatever, if I leave my apartment and come back in, time for a hand wash)
3. Sanitize my cell phone any time I go out from being out in the world (run to the store? come back, sanitize the phone, out for the day? come back and sanitize the phone)
4. Definitely no shoes in the house

(Source)

Kitchen

Random Tuesday

1. Clean and wipe down surfaces regularly, definitely after a cooking sessions
2. Wash and sanitize sink after handling proteins (meat, poultry, seafood)
3. Wash all fruits and veggies
4. Wipe down the microwave after every use (Side note, I rarely use this appliance)
5. Rinse cans before opening them with hot water
6. Use prep gloves to handle food, change often, wash hands when switching between proteins and veggies ( I go through a lot of gloves when I’m cooking because I change them often, this is not a set it and forget it type thing. If you leave the kitchen, touch your phone, your face, hair — take off the gloves, wash your hands, put on a new pair)
7. Sanitize counters with white vinegar regularly (Pro tip: pack an empty spray bottle when traveling, you can always find white vinegar wherever you go)
8. Sanitize counters and sink with a bleach solution (1 oz bleach: a gallon of water) after handling poultry and other proteins
9. Use dishwasher as much as possible (hot water sanitizes dishes)
10. Ensure that cutting boards get run through the dishwasher at least once a week (mostly hand-wash the rest of the time) — spray with white vinegar after hand-washing
11. Change sponges weekly, have one for dishes and one for counters (Pro tip: If traveling and using Airbnb or other rental platforms, pack a sponge)

Random Tuesday during a Pandemic

1. All of the above
2. Clean and sanitize counters after grocery runs (the bag you set on the counter touched a lot of other things first)
3. Wash cans with soap and water prior to opening
4. Wash all fruits and veggies, add vinegar and a bit of baking soda
5. Sanitize counters with a bleach solution, daily

(Source)

Bathroom

Random Tuesday

1. Clean weekly (toilet, tub, sink, floors)
2. Wash bath mat weekly
3. Wipe down counters and toilet seat with Clorox wipes regularly (several times a week, although not necessarily daily)
4. Before AND after guests come over
5. Wipe down the toilet handle regularly
6. Sanitize light switch and door handle

Random Tuesday during a Pandemic

1. All of the above (still on the weekly clean schedule, but the Clorox wipe downs are now daily)
2. Keep paper towels in the bathroom if guests are coming to visit, single-use is best (A shared hand towel is prime grounds for cross-contamination)

Some of this I do regularly and some I’m being stricter about:

1. Keeping purses and bags off of counters (but not on the floor, I keep them on hooks, etc)
2. A weekly wash of tote bags used for grocery shopping (Now washing after every use — I have a TON of tote bags so this isn’t a big deal)
3. Shoes come off right away
4. Daily wipe down of laptop using Clorox wipes
5. Wipe down of cell phone every time I come back to my apartment (again using Clorox Wipes)

Here are the 5 items that are a MUST in any household:

• Bleach (Keep a spray bottle with a bleach solution of 1 oz bleach: 1 gallon of water ratio)
• White Vinegar (Keep in a spray bottle)
• Clorox Wipes (could also use Lysol, but it needs to be something that kills bacteria and viruses, now is not the time for ‘natural’ solutions that may not kill germs)
• Cleaning gloves (you know those yellow ones, but they come in all fun colors now)
• Prep gloves

Are these the only cleaning supplies in my house? Nope, but those are how I ensure that I sanitize and keep things sanitized.

Now you may like the bio-degradable, natural, earth-friendly cleaning products, unfortunately, I haven’t found a readily available one that sanitizes, so you might do your cleaning with these types of products but then you’ll need to sanitize. I wish that being sanitary and being environmentally conscious could go together.

Unfortunately, to reduce the chance for cross-contamination we have to use more single-use items (prep gloves, wipes, etc) and harsher cleaning products. Bleach kills pretty much anything. Vinegar does not, it does slow organism growth, at least the ones that don’t like an acidic environment.

Consider incorporating some of this into your daily routine, and just being more conscious about what you touch and how often you clean your hands is a starting point. This is by no means everything, and you might have your own process, which is fine, as long as it’s not ‘eh, whatever.’ Otherwise, I’m sending my mama to your house. You don’t want her coming for you, trust me.