6 Ways To Keep Your Home Flu Free

Keep your home from serving as a breeding ground for the cold or flu virus with these simple tips.

1. Control your remote
What’s the first thing someone does after calling in sick to work or school? They grab the remote and hunker down with Netflix and some chicken soup. Make sure their germs don’t stick around by disinfecting your remote regularly.

2. Lose the shoes
Flu-causing viruses and bacteria can hitch rides on shoes and the dirt they carry. Ditch your shoes as soon as you walk through the door and slip into some slippers instead.

3. Work that washer
Have kids (or dogs) with lots of plastic and rubber toys? Disinfect them regularly by running them through your dishwasher. It’s a much more efficient way to kill germs than spraying and wiping them down one by one. Consult Google if you’re unsure what’s dishwasher safe.

4. Humidify
Viruses love dry air. Studies show that homes kept at 40-60 percent humidity tend to have fewer flu viruses floating around. Keeping the air in your home at that range can decrease the amount of flu virus in the air by as much as 30 percent. That’s definitely worth the price of a small humidifier.

5. Update your hardware
Copper, aluminum, lead, iron and silver are all antimicrobial — they actually kill bacteria. Brass is the most powerful germ slayer of all. Since doorknobs are a common gathering place for germs, installing brass ones might be a stylish, and effective, strategy for staying flu-free.

6. Replace (or nuke ) your kitchen sponge
That small square holds onto a host of germs. Replace it every week or so, or kill those festering colonies by blasting the sponge in the microwave for two minutes.

Does your current home lack a cozy corner to recover in? It may be time to explore your options.