Here’s a quick guide on what to clean when kids get sick, from toys to bedding to doorknobs.
Fall is the season for our family and like most other families the most difficult time for illness and a household full of sickness that gets passed around. These are my tips for cleaning after the kids are sick and a few of my mom’s hacks to make life easier.
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Inside a Facebook group, I am in a group member asked what does everyone do after they have sick kids. She was asking for recommendations and exactly what she should be wiping down.
This entire post will explain what I do in my after-sickness cleaning routine and everything I do during the recovery to help reduce the spread of germs.
I want to start off my tips by sharing something that I think is most important because I feel like this is something I fail at as a mom and I think most moms sometimes do too.
I have gotten better with it throughout the years. But it can be hard.
Boosting my self-care as a mom
Make sure that when you do have sick kids/family you take care of yourself first.
Frequently you should be washing your hands, taking your vitamins, and upping you know anything that can support your immune system so that you can do what we moms always do when the kiddos are sick.
When my kids are normally sick and I am usually lacking in sleep, my kids are wanting to be next to me and cough on me and all kinds of things.
There are times I end up on bedroom floors caring for them so I am near.
So my first tip is for you to make sure that you’re protecting yourself and helping yourself because as we all know the household doesn’t stop even when mom is sick.
Just like the airlines tell us, put your mask on first before helping others. Make sure you take precautions for yourself and keep yourself as healthy as you can.
Adjust your home baseline to tidy
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I believe in systems and routines and one of those is having a baseline for our home.
When we’re trying to take care of everyone, your baseline should adjust so you shouldn’t be trying to keep up with all of the regular cleaning/tidy routines that you had before, instead focusing on containing the sickness and illness and cleaning the high traffic areas and things that are being touched around.
Make slight adjustments as necessary.
It’s no Bueno trying to kill yourself doing all the things and adding on the sickness-cleaning routine.
What ends up happening is that you’re taking care of sick children and things start to get more untidy than they were before because your focus is on care of them and it’s OK.
We need to be ok with this as moms. Cause sometimes as moms we feel defeated or overwhelmed. And I have learned the hard way as well.
This is normal so I want you to adjust your baseline so that you can focus on what we NEED to be doing, which is disinfecting and keeping others in the household healthy.
So this may mean that you won’t get to your mail as quickly as you would you won’t be putting certain items away as quickly and normally as you would because you’re focusing and trying to make sure that the household is being disinfected, and containing the illness and sickness so everyone can get better.
Now if these tips are making you say I know I know let’s get into the full sickness cleaning routine. Let’s get into it.
My sick cleaning routine
Let fresh air in
This may seem counterintuitive to you opening windows, especially during the cold seasons, but you wanna let the fresh air in so that you can kill germs and release some of that stuff that is floating around in your home.
I usually crack windows at different times and in different rooms throughout the day.
Contain the germs
When you have sick kiddos try to contain how many toys or what toys they’re playing with within the area and comforters and blankets and things that they’re utilizing so that way you’re not adding more to the pile.
Instead, you are disinfecting and cleaning the toys they are using regularly as they’re going through their sickness, which can help reduce the mess.
Maybe try limiting them to a laundry basket of options.
Change the bed sheets often
Coughing at night and sneezing all over the blankets captures a lot of grossness. So I like to change the sheets every two days.
Yes, it’s a lot but so is the annoyance of multiple sick people. So I rather up the washing or even visit a laundromat just to get all those towels and sheets washed and replaced quickly.
Wash your laundry/sheets in hot/warm water disinfect and use vinegar as fabric softener
Keeping linens clean is helpful in getting rid of cold germs. Plus what your body sweats when you are sick is on your bed sheets.
Nothing is better than a warm bath and clean sheets. So change them out.
You could also add a little Pine-Sol to your laundry as a disinfectant. They also sell other laundry detergents to do the same. But Pine Sol works too. Read the label where it says laundry.
Or find a non-toxic disinfectant detergent
Switch out towels more often
Hand washing is done even more often and taking warm baths to ease cold symptoms.
Be sure to change the towels out often, especially those hand-drying towels.
Use Clean Smart Spray all over
I am a fan of Clean Smart Spray because it’s a non-toxic hospital-grade disinfectant and can kill a lot of things. I can’t list or claim stuff due to legal regulations but the pictures of brochures the company sent me say it all check them out.
I have my huge bottles shipped to me on subscription from Amazon because it’s a must-have and I use it all the time.
From my after-school routine to spraying shopping carts and toys all day.
In my experience, it does not leave any residue, has little to no odor at all, and is safe around kids.
Clean/wipe/Spray down car seats
I know we are outside the house on this one. But trust me on this your car carry’s more batería and germs than you think. Read my post on the study that was done.
Also, car seats and kids need I say more. 🤷🏻♀️
Create a sick station and caddy of supplies
So we use a lot of different things during the recovery from tissues, sanitizing spray, Vicks, medicine, etc.
Set up an area to have all that stuff nearby as needed. And use a caddy for keeping all the cleaning supplies on hand for a quick clean-up.
A Dollar tree caddie works for this. See the picture below of what I am referring to.
Invest in Norwex or E-Cloths
Wiping down surfaces during illness is a must. I have two favorite cloths I love using which kill 99% of germs with just water.
I love using my Norwex all purpose cleaning cloth and the second, best is the E-cloths.
They are perfect for keeping on top of frequently touched surfaces. I just wipe quickly and then follow up with my Clean Smart spray for good measure. And let things air dry.
Clean your humidifier
We love our humidifiers but they can get gross. Use vinegar to clean and soak the base and rinse the inside.
Scrub and wipe down all the parts and replace them with fresh water.
The best thing to do is use distilled water. It reduces a lot of that yucky stuff. But I am not consistent with that. So ya know just be sure to clean the machine.
Also, I recently started using these humidifier fishes. Since they are new I can’t speak on if they are good or not. I am waiting the 30 days and then maybe I can comment on it.
Grab your steamer
After all the sickness has left the household you might wanna grab your steam cleaner to deep clean the house. Making sure to kill off any last remaining stuff.
If you have one. This is something optional I would do. I think more like vomiting and areas like that.
This is something for sure I use in the bathrooms.
Use the sanitize option on your dishwasher
When everyone is sick I utilize the sanitize option on my dishwasher. If you don’t know what this is, it’s where the dishwasher will increase the heat of your water. It does it during the wash and rinses cycle.
This helps to kill batería.
Use your dishwasher to clean plastic toys
There are toys that you can run through the dishwasher to help clean and sanitize them. Just be careful you are melting toys. 😄
Wash your pillows after everyone is well
Got a drooler in the household? Then this is pretty self-explanatory. So wash those pillows.
Or at least use pillow protectors to help reduce any bodily fluids from getting on them. And wash them.
Clean and replace toothbrushes
My kids go to the dentist regularly. They make them rinse their mouth with peroxide and water before any work is done.
Plus we get new toothbrushes so I hold on to those.
But during sickness, I will sanitize my kid’s toothbrushes and then replace them. Not if it’s a minor cold. More like flu and viral infections then I will replace them.
Just put your toothbrushes into a cup with peroxide and I also use the clean smart spray to sanitize after minor colds/sniffles.
Deep clean the bathrooms
The dreaded bathrooms. While I am a cleaning fanatic mom. I have to admit bathrooms are one of my least favorite tasks.
If you are a boy mom then you know the struggle is real.
But deep clean those bathrooms at least after the sickness but wipe away germs often during the sickness period. And I will regularly clean more often. Again my least favorite task.
Wipe down frequently touched areas
Are you exhausted yet? Yup, we can understand why I said we have to adjust our routines.
So it’s important to wipe down light switches, railings, chairs, remotes, toys, handles, etc.
Also check out my post on The forgotten areas in your home: What Should You Be Wiping Down, Cleaning, And Disinfecting
Save your empty tissue boxes
With so many tissues take one old tissue box and one full of tissues. Use a rubber band to attach them together or double-sided tape.
Now as they use them they can put dirt ones right in the box.
So there you have it after and during the sickness cleaning routine. And look, it’s tailored to each situation depending on the sickness.
For basic colds, I don’t go the extra mile. Adjust things as necessary.
Using Essential Oils to diffuse in the air
I will keep this one short and simple because there is a lot of dispute with essential oils. But I use and like them. During illness, I use essential oils to reduce germs and clean the air. Find oils that have these benefits from a brand you like. Do your research and be cautious around kids when using.
I like and use Plant Therapy.
What other mom hacks or tips do you use with sick kiddos? Share in the comments below. If you found this post helpful please consider sharing it on social media or Pinterest. This helps me know what other content I should share.