Your complete guide to health and hygiene in the home

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Asking yourself ‘what is hygiene?’ and worrying about invisible germs might not seem important when you’ve just noticed the cat getting ready to climb on the dining table with half the litter box trailing behind them.  

Luckily, getting to grips with good hygiene practices is easier than you think. Here are some great home hygiene tips to follow that’ll help you keep top-notch health and hygiene at home. And it’ll give you a bit more time to make sure Mittens doesn’t turn your dining table into the perfect place for Poo Number 2. 

Health and hygiene in living areas

Maybe you spat your drink out over the table at a funny joke. Maybe your housemate peed on the sofa after watching a scary movie. Whatever happened, there are going to be germs. They won’t hang around for long, though, with these home hygiene tips for living areas: 

• Wipe down surfaces and controllers. Be honest, who has ever caught 100% of their sneezes? So yeah, it’s a good idea to wipe any surfaces that might have picked up a few stray boogers on their way out! 
• Good hygiene practices around pets. We know your cat isn’t allowed up on the kitchen counter, and your cat definitely knows too – she just doesn’t care. So it’s important to make sure you give those countertops a regular wipe down. You know, just in case your cat decides to break the rules. Oh, and clean litter trays as soon as you notice they’ve been used. 

Health and hygiene tips for the kitchen

Good health and hygiene is particularly important in the kitchen because that’s where most of life happens. 

• Clean surfaces after preparing raw meat and eggs. These are the most common sources of harmful bacteria in the kitchen, so take extra care to clean your surfaces thoroughly after preparation – including where you’ve rested the packaging or shells on your work surface.
• Use different coloured chopping boards. Raw meat can contaminate other food, so give your good hygiene practices a helping hand by buying different coloured chopping boards for each food type to be sure there’s no cross contamination. Even if it’s not a contamination issue, doing this will stop your bread from faintly tasting of last night’s chopped potato juices. 
• Use washable dish cloths. Dish cloths can carry germs, especially if they’ve touched raw food and have been stored wet. Just remember to stick them in the wash if they’ve touched something raw (or if they’re starting to look like a canvas that’s covered in the dinners you’ve eaten over the last month). 

Good hygiene practices in the bathroom

Here we are: the most obvious hygiene hazard zone in any house. Good health and hygiene in the bathroom is all about good toilet hygiene.

• Use a moist toilet tissue wipe. Nothing should be left behind on the paper when you finish wiping, so it’s a good idea to follow up your dry toilet tissue with a flushable moist wipe so that you don’t feel like you need to go back for another go at it later in the day. 
• Sing Happy Birthday. Everyone should wash their hands with soap under warm running water after every trip to the loo. The easiest home hygiene tips to remember are the fun ones, so just remember that washing your hands properly should take as long as it takes to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice.