How to Safely Disinfect Your Property for Guests & Customers

While many aspects of society are now beginning to resume normal activity, this reopening is far from anything ordinary. Rather than being the return to normality that many of us still crave, property owners now face greater long-term challenges than they ever did before.

Not only are there many new regulations on indoor social distancing standards, but businesses and organizations are reopening up to a public that no longer feels confident doing their everyday routines. Whether making medical appointments, going shopping, or just enjoying free time out and about, the public are now sanitary skeptics that will only return if they trust in an organization’s cleaning and disinfecting practices. 

So, how can this trust be restored? By embracing new standards on sanitization and properly disinfecting their property, homes and businesses can become welcoming to visitors once again. In this post, you will learn how to correctly disinfect your property to help keep your visitors safe.

Protecting Your Property from Viruses & Bacteria

While many of us are now aware of COVID-19 and the risks it poses to public health, there are also other potential health hazards that go ignored in residential, commercial, and industrial properties.

Based on a report by the Canada Safety Council, items such as desktops had almost 21,000 germs per square inch, other known breeding grounds for viruses and bacteria in buildings such as offices include telephones and coffee makers.

While the number of germs might seem daunting, many of them can be tackled using one simple yet highly effective weapon: disinfectant.

Choose a Quality Disinfectant

Although you might choose old-fashioned disinfectants made from staples like vinegar and baking soda, there are increasing reports that suggest these items are ineffective against germs such as coronaviruses. This means that to fully protect your property to the best of your ability, investing in quality disinfectant is a top priority.

So how do you identify a good disinfectant from a poor one?

While disinfectants are often grouped in the same category, they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. This is because disinfectants are developed from a base chemical, such as chlorine, phenol, or alcohol. These chemicals and their added ingredients vary in quantity and strength depending on how their purpose.

Despite appearing similar, some cheaper disinfectants are only useful for killing bacteria like tuberculosis. Much like influenza and the common cold, coronaviruses like COVID-19 belong to the virus family – they cannot be destroyed with bacterial disinfectants. When purchasing disinfectant, it is vital to check that the product does kill bacteria AND viruses. Product labels might display this as “kills 99.99% of bacteria and viruses”, this is due to the exceedingly rare case of germs being present that scientists do not yet know about.

Cleaners vs. Disinfectants

Another common mistake is using cleaners in place of disinfectants. Although cleaners or cleaning wipes are useful at removing some bacterial and viral particles, they lack the strength of the chemicals in disinfectants. Cleaners are better used to remove visible messes such as stains or marks. While they still can be useful in sanitizing a home or business, they are best paired with a disinfectant so that any viruses on surfaces are completely destroyed.

Identify all Surfaces & Areas

Once armed with the right disinfectant, the most important step is identifying where it needs to be applied. Spend some time inspecting your property to work out common, high-traffic areas that are likely to come into contact with the public.

Examples of areas to disinfect regularly are:

  • Toilets and sinks
  • Elevator buttons
  • Door and window handles
  • Keyboards and other electronic items
  • Food and drink items such as coffee makers and vending machines
  • Touchscreens
  • Baskets, bags and carts

By identifying areas and surfaces like these early on, you can develop an effective cleaning routine that can be shared among others with ease.

Disinfect Your Property Regularly

When it comes to keeping your property as safe as possible for your visitors or staff, maintaining a regular sanitization routine is essential. Make this routine a priority by monitoring visitors and disinfecting at regular intervals, particularly around peak times. Most importantly, make sure the disinfectant has enough time to work on the surface – certain disinfectants require up to 1 minute to activate.

You can complement your routine by following social distancing practices like capping visitor counts, wearing PPE, and employing floor decals to signal one-way traffic inside a room or building.

Buy Disinfectant & Cleaning Supplies from The Packaging Company

If you are reopening your business or are looking to upgrade sanitary practices in your organization, consider buying disinfectant from The Packaging Company. As well as providing a whole suite of PPE to keep your staff and visitors safe, we sell high-quality disinfectant that is known to kill COVID-19 particles.

Start sanitizing your property by browsing our range of disinfectants here today!