Have you relaxed on sanitizing things?

[Kitty 34]

For example washing certain grocery items or "quarantining" things like your mail or whatever?

Or maybe you didn't do any of that in the first place.

We're still pretty vigilant on many things probably because of my lung disease. I have never washed my groceries but we do put certain things aside for a couple of days and get rid of all the plastic bags immediately.

I do still wash off counters and cupboard doors and obviously my hands once all groceries are put away.

DH does keep the mail out on the porch over night before bringing anything in.

And you......?

 

[BlondieinFL]

I haven't really done anything. I do wash my hands after putting groceries away, and handling mail and packages - but, that's been it.

 

[Micca]

Washing my hands a lot, use anti-bacterial wipes on kitchen cabinets, the stove, microwave, phone, remotes and laptops. We haven't really done any quarantining of items or mail, but I always wash my hands after anything new enters the house.

Anyone keeping track of how many times per day you're washing your hands? I must be up to a dozen times a day or more.

 

[jesusfreak75]

Never sanitized things before we brought them in etc... Continuing to wash hands/sanitize quite often, and trying not to touch my face.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I didn’t start over sanitizing when covid hit.

I wash my hands often (at least 12-15 times a day) because I hate my hands feeling dirty. I also drink lots of water so I use the bathroom a lot so I wash my hands often. I’ve been doing this for years. Nothing new there

I wipe down my kitchen counters with Lysol wipes every night but I’ve been doing that since forever.

I spray Lysol on door knobs and remotes a few times a week during flu season and started doing it again when covid struck. But I do it once a week now, when I remember.

Only new thing I do is use hand sanitizer when I leave a store. Never did that before. I used to just wash my hands when I got him.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Yea - we're still not bringing packages and mail directly into the house - using a 'staging' area to go through it, throw away the junk, pull deliverables out of the packages, sanitizing hands, and then bringing them in. I just keep thinking how many packages and mailboxes or porches the delivery folks deal with - still feel better being more careful. We've gotten this far without a virus problem. It's too early to give up on being careful.

 

[wenrob]

I didn’t do all the grocery wiping down, spray my shoes, change your clothes when you come in stuff. I do wipe down counters etc. and wash hands if something has come in from “the outside.” What has changed for me is that I’ve stopped being terrified that everything is “contaminated.” It was starting to feel unhealthy to me.

I probably wash my hands twice as often as I did before even though I was a pretty good hand washer to begin with and I don’t go anywhere. (Hint: body wash makes for great hand soap and doesn’t tear up your hands.) I’ve been trying like heck to get the kids washing hands more often because I want it to be a habit they don’t even think about once they go back to school. They’re in the home bubble though so it’s hard to get them to do it “just because.”

 

[queenofthehive]

i am still sanitizing groceries and handling packages and mail the same cautious way - Nothing has changed. The states might be reopening but that doesn’t mean I can be more lax. It probably means just the opposite because the spread will continue at a faster pace.

 

[chicagoshannon]

Yes. I've stopped wiping all the groceries down. Still wash hands after opening mail etc.

 

[rjb123]

I have always tried to do good hand hygiene (I am a nurse so it is kind of ingrained!) but I never did any sanitizing of grocery items or delivered mail etc. The chance of getting it from those items is very very small. It is mostly transmitted through face to face interactions. For my family we focus on the three W's : Wear a face covering, Wash hands, and Wait six feet back.

 

[Colleen27]

I never started, largely because I'm just scattered and a bit lazy and partly because we don't have a garage or mudroom that could be used as holding space. But the science is pointing toward surface-transfer not posing a serious risk anyway. The minimum infectious dose, which still isn't well-established but is starting to coalesce in the neighborhood of 1000 particles, appears to be high enough and the virus itself fragile enough in the environment to require a "perfect storm" of sorts for contagion via contaminated surfaces - an unmasked person sneezing or coughing in close proximity to an item that you pick up a very short time later, and then you handling that item in just the right places to pick up an infectious dose, and then touching your face enough to transfer those particles to your eyes/nose/mouth before washing your hands. Mail and packages that are somewhat exposed to the elements are even lower risk, because the virus disperses and decays that much faster in outdoor conditions.

I'm just washing my hands after doing the shopping, after I put the groceries away. That's enough for my peace of mind.

 

[ronandannette]

For example washing certain grocery items or "quarantining" things like your mail or whatever?

Or maybe you didn't do any of that in the first place.

We're still pretty vigilant on many things probably because of my lung disease. I have never washed my groceries but we do put certain things aside for a couple of days and get rid of all the plastic bags immediately.

I do still wash off counters and cupboard doors and obviously my hands once all groceries are put away.

DH does keep the mail out on the porch over night before bringing anything in.

And you......?

I'd say we never did adopt many of the measures I've seen mentioned here on the DIS. We have a little routine where we carry disinfectant wipes in our cars and we swab them down (door handles, steering wheel, knobs and buttons) every morning before we get going and we scrub up whenever we come home from being away. Beyond that, and of course regular hand-washing and sanitizing, there's really nothing else we do. We definitely don't scrub the groceries or avoid touching the mail.

 

[Hikergirl]

I've stopped wiping down the groceries and spraying the packages with lysol.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I am in NJ, so we are still being diligent. Let up a little bit and we waste the effort already expended.

 

[RamblingMad]

I sanitize less than before this started. I have to carefully use my Clorox wipes since they’re impossible to find.

 

[fortwildernessishome]

We haven't relaxed on any cleaning/sanitizing. While the cases in NH are extremely low (133 deaths) I think we have had more deaths in the last two weeks then the previous two months. So, for us, now is NOT the time to begin relaxing on cleaning/sanitizing.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

I didn’t do all the grocery wiping down, spray my shoes, change your clothes when you come in stuff. I do wipe down counters etc. and wash hands if something has come in from “the outside.” What has changed for me is that I’ve stopped being terrified that everything is “contaminated.” It was starting to feel unhealthy to me.

^^^This. When the whole thing started, I actually stopped to think, “Okay, how neurotic are you going to allow yourself to be about this?” Lord knows I don’t need anything else to be neurotic about. I was just about due to give birth at the time and, having developed severe postpartum anxiety after having my first child, I knew I was going to have to be extra cautious to protect my mental health to whatever extent possible. Conveniently, I came across an article that said...

I never started, largely because I'm just scattered and a bit lazy and partly because we don't have a garage or mudroom that could be used as holding space. But the science is pointing toward surface-transfer not posing a serious risk anyway. The minimum infectious dose, which still isn't well-established but is starting to coalesce in the neighborhood of 1000 particles, appears to be high enough and the virus itself fragile enough in the environment to require a "perfect storm" of sorts for contagion via contaminated surfaces - an unmasked person sneezing or coughing in close proximity to an item that you pick up a very short time later, and then you handling that item in just the right places to pick up an infectious dose, and then touching your face enough to transfer those particles to your eyes/nose/mouth before washing your hands. Mail and packages that are somewhat exposed to the elements are even lower risk, because the virus disperses and decays that much faster in outdoor conditions.

I'm just washing my hands after doing the shopping, after I put the groceries away. That's enough for my peace of mind.

^^^This. The chance of catching it from packages, mail, and the like is so infinitesimally small that I made a conscious choice not to allow myself to go down that road. I never took any extra precautions with deliveries, which includes our groceries. I focus my efforts on staying physically distant from public places and people, something I’m able to do 99.99% of the time. If I had to go out or be in contact with shared surfaces then I would be extra vigilant about mask-wearing, hand-washing, and sanitizing. I guess my approach to this could be summed up by saying I avoid people, not things.

 

[superme80]

I never did the oversantizing to begin with. I thought it was complete overkill. I do change my clothes when I come back from shopping, but mainly because I want comfy clothes. I have always kept anti bacterial gel and wipes in my car. Gas stations are gross!

 

[Silvermist999]

I don’t understand why people need to keep sanitizing and cleaning inside of their house. Isn’t everything clean in your house. Just wash your hands when you come home, and sanitize stuff like your phone, keys. We do sanitize and wipe down most of the groceries, hate that part but there have been covid cases among local grocery store employees here. We pick up our mail once a week from the community mailbox and only open anything urgent right away. I used to do a lot of online shopping, but have stopped since this all started. One less thing to worry about, plus saving money.

 

[texaslover]

I didn't do any of the decontaminating processes with regard to groceries or mail. I wash my hands if I go out/after bathroom and when I was able to find sanitizer started sanitizing in the car after shopping. I can't imagine washing my hands a dozen times a day. If I'm sheltering in place what am I touching??