With the current global health crisis, it is critical for families to ensure that they are keeping themselves safe at home. Of course, washing your hands frequently and not touching your face are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to safety and health at home. Keep reading to learn six surprising ways that you can keep your family healthy at home in these very strange times.
1. Use a Home Security System
Staying safe and healthy during these times is not just about ensuring you are eating and drinking safe foods, but it is also about reducing contact with people who may not be taking care of themselves. Of course, there’s no way to know who is or is not taking precautions like this, so using a high-quality home security system can help you limit contact with others.
Options like the Ring doorbell can allow you to know who is at the door and speak to delivery people without face-to-face contact. This protects both your family at home and the people on the other side of the door. As a bonus, a home security system will help you to watch over your home from afar once pandemic restrictions are lifted and life returns to normalcy over time.
2. Allow Packages to Disinfect
Remember the old saying, “better safe than sorry”? Being safe during this time means taking some precautions that may seem to be a little much. Research shows that COVID-19 can survive on packages for as long as 3 days.
To make sure your family stays healthy, take any packages that are delivered and place them in your garage or a little-used closet for three days before opening them.
3. Create a Mindfulness Practice
Staying safe and healthy at home is more than just physical. Right now, people living together in close quarters are under a great deal of stress, so it is important to create a calming mindfulness practice or find other ways to care for your mental health and reduce anxiety. Researchers have proven mindfulness practice can reduce anxiety and improve blood pressure. Look up mindfulness YouTube videos or try an app like Headspace to get started.
4. Use a Mask in Public
Different parts of the world and country are beginning the reopening process after lockdowns, but there will still be a great deal of risk to the elderly and immunocompromised from COVID-19 until a vaccine is created. To keep your family safe at home, use a mask in public to ensure that you are not bringing germs home and that you are being careful about others’ health.
5. Keep Shoes Outside
Keep your family healthy at home by keeping germs outside. That means letting packages disinfect outside the house or reducing contact with others, but it also means watching out for the little things, like keeping shoes outside. When you walk around, you step in millions of germs. Don’t bring those germs in the house — doctors are recommending that shoes stay out of the house in general going forward to reduce risk at home.
6. Use Water Filters
Do you know whether your drinking water is coming from a source that has a water filter on it? If you don’t know, chances are good that you are inadvertently drinking unfiltered and potentially unsafe water.
Using water filters helps to ensure that you are drinking clean water. Depending on where you are located in the world, your local water may be more or less naturally clean. Even in places where the tap water is considered “safe” to drink, it is best to ensure that you are filtering the water using a water filter that meets CDC guidelines.
Take care of your family mentally, physically, and emotionally by following these tips to make sure your family stays safe and healthy at home.