Mrs. Clean Mrs. Clean

Every once in a while I have to remind my family that I went to school to learn to do hair.  It doesn't seem like something that would have to be argued about but it comes up more often than you would think.  For instance when I am giving Matt a haircut, for some reason he thinks he needs to check to make sure I am cutting the correct amount EVERY time.  And many times when I am combing Madels hair she will try and tell me I am doing it wrong, or that the style isn't cool!  It kills me.  And as you can see from this portrait of me above I have wonderful hair!

So aside from all of the wonderful hair styling information that I absorbed in that year, I also picked up some very valuable information about sanitation.  A couple of days a week we would spend a couple of hours in the morning reading "Oregon Law"  It was mind numbing. But recently it has started coming back to me I come to realize that it is my civic duty to pass on this information to others.  It is also important for me to point out that ALL of this information is on the labels of each of these products.  It is not a secret, or something you have to go to beauty school to learn! 

 I know you may think that this doesn't apply to you, but believe me it does.  Last weekend a little virus passed through the kids and I wanted to get the "germs" out of the house.  So what do I do?  

I grabbed this can of disinfectant.  And went to town. Please note this is a disinfectant.  Now disinfectants will  destroy  infectious bacteria, but not necessarily their spores. But, and this is a giant BUT, in order for this to actually work even a little bit, you must allow the spray to remain on the surface for 10 minutes!!!! This is a long time.  And the surface must stay wet.  Then you can wipe it off with your rag.  So the problem lies in the fact that usually when I go to kill germs during and after a sickness sweeps my house I walk around the house with the lovely can and spray all the door knobs, light switches, faucets and so on.  I immediately wipe the surface and guess what? I've officially done nothing.  All I have done is made them smell a little nicer.  Which, after the sickness is usually a welcome gift.  So this time, I went ahead and read the directions on the can to make sure I was getting the best result and did the 10 minute wait time.  

Next I am going to discuss these beauties

These are also in the category of disinfectant.  I LOVE these wipes.  I love to keep them under each sink in the house so I can quickly pass through the bathroom with a wipe and have it CLEAN and DISINFECTED!!!  But guess what? In order for these to work they also follow the keep the surface wet  for 10 minutes rule.  Crazy!!!! I tested this out on the kitchen counter the other night.  I tried to keep the surface wet for as long as I could and guess what? It didn't work.  The wipe itself was completely dried out within the first minute.  I think it would take the entire can in order to actually disinfect your surface.  

Again you will have a nice wiped down surface and it will smell nice but the germs will remain.  

After I started reading these labels I started thinking, what do they use at the gym? They very likely use a high level disinfectant like quaternary ammonium chloride that is used in salons for tools and such but, still in order for these products to work they must remain wet for a long(ish) period of time.  And I am guessing that the little spray into a towel and wipe I used to do on my spin bike didn't quite cut it.  SICK.  

Am I a germ-a-phobe?? No not really.  But I just don't like the thought of going to all the work of wiping everything down with a clorox wipe to just make it smell good.  I think I will keep using the wipes simply because I like the disposableness of them but I will just have to make sure to use the spray and let it sit when I really want to kill something.  

And in case you couldn't tell, yes I am still a little bored.