By now, most understand that it is important to disinfect your home or office regularly to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. But do you know the difference between cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing ? Many people get these terms mixed up or they think they are one of the same.
Cleaning Removes Dirt, Dust, crumbs and Germs
Cleaning is one of the most important things you can do for your office or living area. It removes dirt, dust, crumbs, and germs from surfaces or objects. When you clean, you will likely use soap or detergent and water to physically clean off the surface or object that needs cleaning.
This may not necessarily kill the germs on the surface, but since you removed some of them there are fewer germs that could spread infections to people nearby.
Disinfectants keep your Living Area Gem-Free
Disinfectants, like bleach or Lysol, are powerful substances that keep your home germ-free. But just because they’re effective doesn’t mean you should go overboard; disinfecting does not necessarily clean dirty surfaces or remove germs.
How long should you leave the chemicals on? The rule of thumb is about 10 minutes for a surface to be considered disinfected. And always use gloves when working with these chemicals.
Disinfection is the complete removal of all disease-causing germs from a specific area, while sanitization through just cleaning alone may leave some microscopic organisms behind. Think of it as, cleaning and then disinfecting are the two methods to best sanitizing an area of bacteria.
For example, if you have an open wound in your arm that is bleeding, it should be cleaned and disinfected as quickly as possible: this would remove any germs coming from the air or other people’s hands which could infect your wound and make it worse. Once these germs have been removed, the skin needs to be sanitized to reduce the number of microorganisms on and under the skin surface, so they don’t get into wounds caused by scratching.
Sanitizing is Lowing the number of Gems to a Safe Level
Sanitizing means that you are lowering the number of germs to a safe level and it is necessary for ensuring the safety of your living and working environment. The public health standards or your workplace will consider what safe levels are and set the requirements depending on what the needs are. Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces and objects touched often will help to prevent infection in most circumstances.
Just remember that disinfecting is the process that cleans and kills all germs in your working or living area. It is a little more intense because you’re not just cleaning but actually destroying the disease-causing bacteria inside your home or office. To sanitize is to free the areas from dirt and germs by means of cleaning and disinfecting. To learn more about how often you should be disinfecting, you can read more here.
We are fully Insured and Bonded and our Window Cleaning Teams are also covered under Workers Compensation.
Technicians are extensively trained to administer both exterior and interior cleaning processes and procedures.
Committed to keeping our environment and community safe, and will always follow all OSHA and EPA guidelines.
