Home Hygiene and Family Health - Tips and Best Practices

Ms Sue Chetwin, chief executive of Consumer NZ, said in a meeting that 68% of people who attended their latest home survey picked healthcare costs as their biggest concern for the future. Home ownership costs and water quality were close behind.

Health care costs can be reduced by preventing diseases caused by unclean atmosphere in the home premises. This means that maintaining a clean home environment is an important point you should always keep in mind. Unclean homes can contribute to unhealthy children and disease-prone aged family members.

How to keep the home perfectly clean is however a million dollar question! Over 3 million children (below 5 years) die annually due to environment-related causes, a data collection with the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed. It is therefore advisable to do away with air pollutants, mould, contaminated water, household waste, and accumulated dirt & debris from our homes. However, we need not pay heed to the countless advertisements that solely promote a wide collection of antibacterial cleaners waiting to be sold in the supermarket shelves.

So what should you use other than the antibacterial stuff to clean the surfaces in your home to get a clean and healthy environment? Regular detergent, if possible environment-friendly, and water are sufficient to maintain hygiene, provided you follow the correct home cleaning procedures. 

Child health and home hygiene

Inadequately maintained indoor and outdoor areas in your home with overcrowding and clutter can adversely influence a child’s mental focus and physical development capabilities.

A health research published in a recent edition of the Journal of Neuroscience clarified that excessive clutter will lead to over-stimulation and eventually cause slower learning attitude in toddlers. It also said an overcrowded environment makes the children lazy and withdrawn.

A clean home with neatly arranged rooms emanating a pleasant smell, will contribute greatly to your child’s academic performance. Also a clean, germ-free home will improve the immune system of the child.

About 5,000 students in high school were surveyed in a recent study, which confirmed that children living in clean homes obtained higher grades than students who were not. Almost 80% of the students who got top grades revealed that their home had a clean and pleasant scent, while over 30% (with poor grades) admitted that their homes were not kept orderly and had an unpleasant odour. It’s thus clear that a clean home environment is inevitable for the better future of your children.

How to efficiently manage your home cleaning

It’s a challenge for working class parents to manage daily housekeeping and cleaning of their homes. For them, money is not much a big issue, but time is. They need to look for reliable, quality cleaners to maintain their homes in perfect shape. They will be happy if they can get a security checked and dependable cleaner who’ll clean their house safely in their absence too.

Even if one person in the family is a home maker, you’ll find that a Herculean effort will be needed to maintain a house with kids and elderly people. If it really feels beyond you, cleaning companies in New Zealand such as Select Clean can provide help on an hourly or calendar basis like weekly or fortnightly cleaning. They also have special cleaning packages to suit the seasons and particular occasions.

Check out various home cleaning activities and price ranges at Select Cleaning. You can visit their website to know their cleaning standard, company’s security measures, and the training they provide to home cleaners in New Zealand and Australia. Also, watch a comprehensive video on all their home cleaning tasks & house maintenance ideas. Get your free home cleaning quote now by calling Select Cleaning on 0800 000 907 and give your children one less thing to complain about!

Tips to Keep Your Home Clean and Healthy

How to avoid bathroom slips and falls 

It seems all are aware of the risk of falls in the bathroom, but time and again accidents happen, causing serious injuries. Medical reports say that 28 to 35 percent people over 65 fall each year, mainly in the bathroom. And as the age increases, the rate of falls also increases with around 40% people affected in the 70 years or older category. Interestingly, the rates of falls among women exceed those of men for all age groups.

Fall prevention:

• Liquids on the floor can cause slips - mop up spills or splashes as and when they occur.
• Bathroom floors become slippery when they’re not properly cleaned. Find time to do a thorough cleaning to remove all traces of oil, soap and grease from the floor and wall tiles.
• Place slip resistant bath mat on the floor, and in the bath/shower.
• Never use smooth vinyl floor coverings; go for non-slip material.
• Use honed marble flooring instead of polished one.
• Avoid alcohol misuse and wearing of inappropriate shoes.
• Additional safety measures like grab rails and non-slip surface coating may be used. 

How to handle dampness in your home 

A damp home is an unhealthy home, there’s no doubt in that! But there is more than that - you need to spend more money as the damp air takes more energy to get heated up in the winter. Also note that moisture and dirt are the main factors which cause premature deterioration of fixtures and fittings inside the house.  

Blocked drainage and gutters, cracked or leaky downpipe, and other plumbing issues can lead to water seepage and dampness in your house. If moisture is not controlled, it’ll cause mould growth on the walls and ceiling.

Mould can cause health issues too such as asthma, lung infection, inflammation and allergy etc.

Use exhaust fans while showering, bathing, drying clothes, and cooking so that water vapours will not get accumulated indoors. If possible dry the clothes outside because drying clothes indoors creates about six litres of moisture per load.

If dampness still persists, try using a dehumidifier at places where there is more moisture and less airflow. 

Stop borer and other pests eating your home  

• Borers can weaken the timber and affect the wooden structures of your home.
• Watch out for small flight holes on wooden surfaces and presence of fine saw dust. These signs indicate that there are mice/rats and other woodworms grinding away your doors, furniture or other timber structures.
• Proper wood treatment is to be applied for preventing borer attack. All untreated wooden surfaces are vulnerable to pest infesting. Application of long-term penetrating treatment with insecticide or preservative can control the borers. Make sure that the product used for pest control treatment is environment-friendly, long lasting, and not harmful to humans.
• If you’re worried about getting an affordable and reliable pest control service in New Zealand, Select Home Cleaning Company can arrange to have it done by experts known to us in your locality.
• The basic thing to remember is to keep your home well maintained and perfectly cleaned to avoid infestation of rodents, termites, beetles etc. Clean up the places they like to nest such as bundles of old newspapers, unclean cupboards, unattended spare rooms, basement etc. 

Select Home cleaners do perfect house cleaning (from vacuuming and wiping to all other cleaning activities) - everything from bedrooms to bathrooms and the kitchen, they beautify your home with affordable hourly rate. 

Contact Select Clean now for a free quote:

Website: click here. 

Free call: 0800 000 907.