Lock-down Day 3 and 4 : 26th and 27th March, 2020
One of the major precautions of Covid-19 is cleaning hands thoroughly and frequently with soap or hand-wash for 20 seconds.
While washing hands has such primary role in saving lives, I remember how many “unwritten and unofficial” rules that we (My family including myself) have been following since long back. Here are some of the things that we always maintain in my house. Later when I moved out, I began to realize that my friends and colleagues definitely do not follow many of them…
Can you imagine how many hours of our life we spend in cleaning?
The things that I mentioned are mainly enforced by my mom and sometimes dad breaks some. We the children, never dare to break any of them while staying at home.
Today I am sharing these with all of you so that you guys can judge me forever.
Washing hands thoroughly before and after eating anything.
This was taught by my parents when we were little. While I personally do this all the time even when they are not watching, I lose my shit when somebody with the unwashed hands take food from my lunch box. So annoying!
Always keeping nails short and cleaned
Girls always seem to have craze of growing nails long, painting them. While in my house painting nails were never a problem but my parents always encouraged us to trim the nails every 2 weeks. This helps specially because in India, we eat directly with hands. Also having short nails makes life lot more easier.
Always covering foods, while unattended.
While we all would love to believe that our households are free from any sort insects or rats, we truly don’t know how many ways the unattended food can get contaminated. So it is always a good habit to cover or protect the unattended or left-over foods.
Always washing the fruits and vegetables before consuming raw.
I have seen my mom to wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly before serving raw, even when they looked perfectly clean. Recently I was reading an article recently which exposed that even many of the packaged food items (like salads and cut fruits) are not cleaned properly and contain harmful bacteria. So I think it is always safe to go an extra mile to ensure the food that you are consuming is cleaned.
Eating only on the dining table, specially not on bed.
I am not sure if this counts or not. We are never allowed to have food in bed… No breakfast in bed at my home!
Washing hands with sanitizer or soap after coming home from outside
In my childhood I used to get irritated if I was asked to wash hands immediately after coming home tired from a tuition or something.
No biting nails
Biting nails is seriously one of the most digusting things, I used to see people in school and college with this habit and honestly their nails and cuticles looked so gross.
Not eating foods from the floor
Seriously, everybody should follow that. Be it the last piece of your favorite pizza or fried chicken from KFC, if you have dropped it on the floor, please don’t eat that. 5 seconds rule is not real.
Not eating foods from street side
For the longest period of my life, my parents did not let me eat any street food. Later, when I started to live by myself I still try to maintain that mostly because of hygiene issues. I am saying that all street foods are unhygienic but you should definitely assess the hygiene situation of the shop before giving up on a delicious plate of chaat or panipuri.
Different pair of sleepers for Washroom
In many of my friends houses, they use same shoes pair of sleepers for rooms and washroom. But in my house, washroom sleepers are always kept separate.
Long back, I read one article that suggested Japanese people too use different sleepers for washrooms- not sure about the legitimacy of the source but definitely felt good about that habit. I don’t know why!
One cannot step inside home in outdoor shoes
This may not be applicable for most of the readers, I believe. Living in a small town of India and not using private cars- shoese are always covered with dust or mud depending on the season. This habit has helped us to keep the indoors cleaner.
No shoes allowed in prayer room
It’s applicable for temples as well. In my house, we don’t have a dedicated room for prayer, however we have a little corner we worship God and pray. We never take our shoes near to that.
Changing clothes after pooping
I never discussed this with anyone. I don’t know if anyone follows the same or not!
Changing clothes immediately after coming from outside
Most of the times, we come tired and lie down on bed in outside clothes. It would not be proper rest it the clothes are sweaty and uncomfortable.
Cleaning the combs before shampooing
My mom used to clean combs and brushes on the day I wash my hairs- usually once or twice a week.
After moving out, taking care of such small things became problem. Oneday I was cleaning my combs and my roommate appreciated the idea… She told that she too used to do that but stopped it out of laziness.
Collecting all the hairs from the comb and floor after combing and throw it in the dustbin
I think this is a really good habit. We are 3 ladies here, everybody has long hair. And we lose a lot of hairs while combing. Collecting all the hair after hair-wash, after combing saves the other people from seeing the gross scene. My roommate’s hair is all over the floor and in the washroom- and trust me, it does not feel great.
Cleaning the house with a broomstick followed by mopping all the rooms with disinfectant.
Deep Cleaning of the house at least twice a year (one before Bengali New Year and before Durga Puja)
This includes every inch of the house, from the curtains to the socks- everything will be cleaned.
Changing bed-sheets and pillow covers every month after period or after recovering from fever or sickness
I really love the smell and feel of clean bedsheet, feels so cozy!
Keeping the blankets, mattresses and pillows in Direct Sunlight once in a while to protect them from damping
My mom dedicates a lot of time for keeping the household neat and clean.
If cleanliness is next to Godliness, my house is God (or maybe a temple?).
Maybe some of them are wise, some of them are too much- but I appreciate her dedication and effort.
I gave so much details about my house and mom’s rules. Share the cleanliness rules you guys follow in your house… Don’t be nasty!
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