I will never forget watching on TV a news show where hidden cameras were placed in various hotel rooms to spy on the custodian staff and testing was done on general surfaces and they found dangerous and harmful bacteria and viruses lurking. They caught on video a couple of the maids as they washed the bathroom sink cup, kitchen cups and coffee pots with a toilet brush. Well, I tell you after I saw this I was left undone. I vowed that I would never stay in a hotel ever again! LOL! (check out the youtube video below) But frankly, I knew this was an impossibility for me. So I knew I had to come up with a plan and a way to get around this so my husband and I can still travel and feel alright staying in a hotel room without feeling totally like we might get something. I tell you I have enough of my own health issues and I don’t need no help in getting sick with anything else. So with a few cleaning tools and techniques, I feel empowered after we sanitize our room and feel a little bit safer. So anytime we stay in a hotel room this is what we do.
First, off we try to find and stay in the best, good reputation and clean hotel that we possibly can afford and pray! And at “check-in” bring to the attention of the hotel desk that we prefer not to have any cleaning staff service or enter our room for our entire stay. That is a must! Because it means no one is to touch anything or change out the sheets or the towels or come in to clean the bathroom or any area of the room until we check out. And the reason for this is so the room’s surfaces stay clean and won’t be re-contaminated by some unsanitary worker/staff’s unclean practices.
So once we open the door to our room we might leave our luggage/overnight bags right outside the door or in the car (to bring in afterward) and enter (open the windows if we can) to do a ten minute easy overall clean up. We bring some good, effective, quick and easy cleaning products in a plastic grocery bag with us. So here’s what we use.
12 Cleaning Items To Bring:
1 spray bottle of Clorox Clean-Up
*1 Clorox/Lysol Disinfectant Wipes
*1 Seventh Generation Disinfectant Spray
(eucalyptus, spearmint & thyme-scented)
1 small bottle of bleach dish liquid
1 liquid hand soap
1 large old rag (to clean 1st kitchen and 2nd bathroom floor to dispose of)
*1 roll of paper towels
1 sanitizing wand
1 bottle hand sanitizer
5 grocery bags (for garbage)
2 large garbage bags
*6 pairs of disposable plastic gloves
*lovely scented wax melts (optional)
Our overall cleaning technique takes 10 minutes to do and can be done once you know where? how? and what? needs to be cleaned and it’s a piece of cake.
HIT THE HOTSPOTS
Here’s what? needs to get cleaned and where?:
The bathroom toilet, bathroom sink, bathroom shower/tub, rails, door handles, light switches, and floor.
In extended stay hotels with kitchenettes, the kitchen sink, microwave, counter-tops, table, handles, and floor.
The bedroom surfaces of nightstands, TV stand, TV, phone, headboard, TV remote, the desk and remove the top cover/blanket (because most hotels never wash it) and try to wipe off any area where you think you and your family hands will be touching during the stay. Swipe keys have multiple germs so clean them too.
Sanitize the sheets and duvet on the bed with the sanitizing wand. Wipe off any chairs in the bedroom or if you have a lounge area the chair or sofa in there.
Cover the areas you cannot clean like the floor or carpet beside your bed with the hotel towels.
Here’s how? to clean these areas. Apply light pressure when wiping surfaces corner to corner. Use a new wipe for each new surface. Use several clean wipes. First, wipe discard and re-wipe with a second wipe each surface. Don’t use the same one wipe everywhere and for the whole room or else you are defeating the purpose here. Use these wipes liberally! Use lots of wipes! Wipe the areas at least two or three times to ensure you are getting it clean enough. When using the rag on the floor first wipe up the kitchen floor first and the bathroom last. You go from the cleanest area to the dirtiest.
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~Dirty Hotel Rooms: Hidden Camera Shows What Really Gets Cleaned!~
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A. Bathroom:(about 2 minutes)
Put on plastic gloves and 1. spray Clorox Clean-Up in the shower/bathtub, (spray or soak shower head in plastic bag with bleach and water) and tub safety bars, bathroom sink, entire toilet bowl-handle-toilet seat and then go back out of the bathroom spraying the Clorox clean up onto floor and leave the room to soak for at least 20 minutes and close the door.
Then head to the kitchen.
B. Kitchen: (about 2 minutes or less)
Spray Clorox Clean-Up in the kitchen sink and inside the microwave, leave it to soak for 20 minutes.
Next, we use the 2. Clorox/Lysol disinfectant wipes on the kitchen countertop, the tabletop, handles, inside the fridge surfaces and fridge door handles and the outside of the microwave.
Then head to the bedroom area.
C. Bedroom: (about 2 minutes or less)
We wipe off the surface/tops of the bed’s side tables, the headboard, the TV remote, the desk, the phone, the air conditioner knob/handle, any chairs or the lounge chair.
Pull off and put away the top blanket into a drawer. Then pull back the duvet and sheets and examine the bed and the sheets to make sure it looks clean then swipe with the 3. sanitizing wand across the sheets, duvet, and the pillows. Then follow up with the 4. seventh-generation disinfectant spray over the sheets, the pillows, and the duvet. Spray well. We leave the bed sheet pulled back so the bed can air out and dry.
D. Backtrack: (about 2 minutes)
Finally, my husband backtracks and wipes and rinses the kitchen sink, microwave, bathtub, toilet seat, bath sink with clean moistened paper towels then finishes up with wiping up the (5.) kitchen floor then bathroom floor with the wet rag underneath the bottom of his shoe. Tosses the rag into the trash along with any used wipes and paper towels. Then followup with the (6.) the seventh generation disinfectant spray all over the cleaned surfaces everywhere, even the curtains and into the air. And be sure to spray the phone if you plan to use it and turn off the air conditioner or heat for a few minutes and spray a little right into the vent.
E. Use Hotel Towels As A Barriers To Surfaces You Cannot Clean
Another thing to do is to always bring your own towels and washcloths from home for showers so the hotel towels and washcloths can be used as cushions/barriers over any dirty surfaces you cannot clean.
For instance, spread out the bath towels on the floor or carpet beside the bed so your bare feet won’t touch on the dirty carpet or cold floors and keep your slippers beside the towel so you can step right into them and use the hand towels to cover fabric or leather chair seats. I always like to bring an old sheet with me to cover any sofa or furniture I’ll be sitting on.
And you can use the washcloths to cover the nightstands surfaces as you lay your phone, necklace, comb, brush, rings, etc and things on it. And I love to bring scented wax to place on a table or nightstand.
In a total of 10 minutes or less and your done!
Other little obvious tips and warnings:
Wash your hands frequently with running water and soap! I cannot say this enough.
Leave you’re all your clothes zipped up in their suitcases. Keep your suitcases and bags zipped closed your entire stay. Never totally unpack and never put anything in the drawers. Unpack what you need to use only for that day. And put your dirty laundry in a good secure plastic bag tied close back into your suitcase to wash when you get home or take to laundry.
Bring your own pillow is the first and best choice, if not spray the pillow with disinfectant spray and set it in a sunny area for one hour turn it over and let it sit in sun for another hour (if you have to open the curtains to let the sun come in on the pillows then do so) then cover your pillow with a huge clean towel like a beach towel or bring an extra pillowcase is what I do if I don’t bring my own pillow.
Bring your own bottled water or buy bottled water there, don’t ever drink from the tap because those faucets may not have been ever cleaned.
Wear flip flops or shower shoes in the shower never go bare feet in the shower or on the floor anywhere. Cover and protect your feet.
Never use the ice buckets, coffee pots, teapots or dishes they provide in the hotel rooms. Your better off drinking the coffee or tea they provide in the buffet area or to bring your own or use their disposable Styrofoam cups, paper plates, drinking cups, plastic forks, knives and spoons, and your own portable pots. This is the only way to know it’s sanitary and buy individual one serve coffee bags (they look like little tea bags) as I like to bring Folger’s coffee bags in my purse.
I like to avoid hotel pools like the plague. I prefer my own private pool or swim in my own bathtub, rubber ducky and all. LOL!
Everyone has heard and seen on the news how some unfortunate soul winds up getting sick from staying in an unsanitary hotel while on vacation or on business. Some of the germs there cannot be seen with the naked eye and so you have to be very careful. Especially when you have a small family, children and the elderly because they cannot fight off those germs so easily.
Also, I know some people don’t like using bleach and toxic chemicals but I feel in this case we are in a hotel that hundreds if not thousands of people have used and passed through and so I am not taking any chances with other peoples germs. We can and should be cleaning up our own germs and that is enough. Like I said these hotels are never totally clean and although they look pretty and look clean sometimes they are not. At home, I can use fewer chemicals in cleaning but when out in public places I need some powerful stuff.
So even if you cannot bring every item on the list above of cleaning items at least try to tuck in your suitcase at least three (3) out of the twelve (12) listed and that being the disinfectant wipes, disinfectant spray, and hand soap.
If I had to bring less I’d bring the disinfectant wipes, disinfectant spray and hand soap where ever I go or I’m not going. You know some people even go as far as to bring a vacuum cleaner with them but I know how far to go and I won’t be taking things that far, hell if I have to bring a vacuum, then I might as well just stay home and not go anywhere near a hotel. LOL! I’m not doing that!
My husband takes our garbage to the dumpster outside the hotel every day when we leave to go out.
Then you have someone saying well all of this defeats the purpose of staying in a hotel, you go to a hotel so you don’t have to do any work. Well in today’s world I feel you are taking a chance with your health and rolling the dice. There was a time when people used to really take time and clean hospitals and public places but everything is rush, rush and people are not being paid right and feel like they are not going to bust their behinds. Some are overworked and given too many rooms to clean within a certain time frame. So they take short cuts at our expense and also you never know who is carrying what disease. So I feel that taking out 10 minutes of our time to clean our hotel room is well worth the trouble if we want to stay well and not catch something and get sick or at least by doing this we reduce the chances of catching something because even this cleaning is not foolproof we are still in a public place. But I would rather try this little bit then not do anything at all or else I am back to choosing not to stay in a hotel at all.
Another idea or possibility is to hire a private housekeeper to come in on day one to re-clean your hotel room. Or bring your housekeeper with you on your trips and vacations if you can afford to do it. Some people bring friends with them on trips so instead bring your housekeeper with you instead.
So one more tip is once home be sure to wipe down your suitcase and ladies your bags! On the outside first then use another clean disinfectant wipe for the inside. And do your dirty laundry immediately of course.
~Be safe everyone!~
~and thanks so much for stopping by to visit me~
check out this link to an interesting article about how your hotel room can make you sick.
and another link to an interesting article about 8 secrets of people who don’t get sick
https://health.usnews.com/wellness/slideshows/8-secrets-of-people-who-dont-get-sick
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