General Good Hygiene

• Regularly disinfect common touch-points around the home – door handles, telephone receivers, computer keyboards, kitchen worktops etc. These surfaces can harbour more germs than a toilet seat!
• Wash your hands at key germ transmission points through the day – just before mealtimes, just after going to the loo and just after an activity that brought you into contact with lots of germs – things like gardening or playing with pets or a nappy change.

Hygiene in the Kitchen

• Disinfect dishcloths – and have a separate one for ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ jobs. From mopping a spill on the floor to wiping a kitchen preparation surface, to washing up plates in the sink, dishcloths are a culprit for giving germs a free ride around the kitchen. Make sure they are cleaned often.
• Stack the fridge hygienically. As a rule of thumb, ready to eat foods should be stacked towards the top and raw foods towards the bottom. 
• If possible, separate chopping boards should be used – one for fruit and vegetables, one for ‘high risk’ foods like raw meat and fish and one for other items. All should be disinfected after each use.
• Regularly sweep up crumbs in cupboards to prevent insect infestations.

Young Children

• Make sure toys are sterilised regularly – toys go from floor to mouth and child to child all the time, making them prime germ vehicles.
• Ensure the floors are regularly cleaned with a good quality disinfectant. This is very important if young children are still crawling.
• Steralising babies’ bottles is very important – babies and toddlers are very susceptible to diarrhoeal diseases picked up from inadequately steralised bottles.

Bathroom

• Make sure the toilet seat is down when flushing the loo – men included. This will prevent germ-laden water droplets splashing around the bathroom.
• Regularly disinfect communal touch points like flush handles, and taps.
• Change hand towels regularly to ensure they don’t become germ havens.
• Leave a good quality hand liquid wash by the taps for people to use.
• Leave face flannels out to dry – if they are left in a soggy heap, bacteria can multiply quickly in the moist warmth of the towel.

Pets

• Clean pet food bowls and litter trays at an outside tap. Avoid cleaning them in the kitchen sink.
• Try to keep pets out of the kitchen and away from food preparation areas.
• Regularly clean out places where pets sleep, like dog baskets.

Some common misconceptions of hygiene, illness and drugs:

Belief #1: Wiping food preparation surfaces is the best way to prevent the spread of disease.
Fact: Hand washing is more effective. 80 per cent of germs are spread by touch. However surface disinfection also presents a significant risk, so keep wiping down those surfaces!

Belief #2: Most germs are found on the toilet seat.
Fact: In a regular home with running water, the chopping board in the kitchen is likely to harbour 80 per cent more germs than the toilet seat.

Belief #3: You are most likely to pick up food poisoning from a restaurant meal or takeaway.
Fact: Bouts of food poisoning are far more likely to be picked up in the home.

Belief #4: Sanitisation lowers our natural immunity.
Fact: Targeted disinfection at key transmission points (like visiting the loo, before preparing or eating food) will not lower our bodies’ natural inbuilt immunity. Bloomfield SF, Stanwell-Smith R, Crevel RW, Pickup J. Too clean, or not too clean: the hygiene hypothesis and home hygiene. Clin Exp Allergy. 2006 Apr