Managing COVID 19 In Our Home

I would like to preempt with this —
this blog post is not meant to cause anxiety or further distress around this pandemic. 

My husband and 8 month old are both high risk for respiratory issues. This means that we have decided to implement new lifestyle changes since this nasty virus showed up. It might seem neurotic to some, but I thought I'd share because a few of you might be interested, or think to try something you might not have thought of.

We know the virus is not in our home, so we have created a line of defense to keep it that way. Here’s how:


We do a combination of ordering food online with Delish Deliveries and shopping at the supermarket. When food is delivered to our home, we disinfect the boxes first, then bring the box into our home. We open the box and proceed to disinfect everything inside piece by piece. This whole process can take up to an hour, but now we have it down to about 35 mins or so. The fruit and veggies are placed in a water + vinegar solution or a Dr Bronner's castile soap bath. We are not able to recycle the cardboard anymore due to COVID restrictions, so we simply recycle it. We do the same system after a grocery shop. Every single item is cleaned and/or opened and placed away.


We use old, reusable plastic bags that we already had when shopping. Cloth bags are more likely to bring the virus into the home. When I have used cloth bags, I wash them immediately upon my return home. We leave the plastic bags outside the house as well.


When we visit the grocery store, we avoid going at peak times. It's very quiet during the day as most people are at work or working from home. We avoid going on the weekend if possible, as this is when you'll most likely have to cue up and wait to get in.
(This happened to me once, and I won’t do it again).


At the shops, we get in and get out. We don’t loiter and we don’t touch all the things. My husband saw a man sneeze in the cleaning aisle, twice, without covering his mouth. He saw the spit/spray absolutely cover all the products in front of him. It was a great reminder of how easy it can be for viruses to travel. So, grab what you need and move on.


We never leave the house without a mask. We use N95 masks or surgical masks. We also have double sided tape to create a flush seal if it doesn’t fit properly for any reason.

We leave our shoes at the door and do not wear them inside.


I don’t kiss my 8 month old on the lips anymore.


When we get home from the shops, doctor’s office, wherever…. we place our belongings down and disrobe. Then we have a hot shower and wash throughly. After this we disinfect everything that was used: wallet, credit cards, keys, phone. I think this is particularly important if you have small toddlers and babies who like to play with your phone/keys.


We always wash our hands after retrieving the mail and we disinfect our mail box.


We always wash our hands after bringing the garbage bins in, and we also disinfect the bin handles.


We do not eat out. We don’t get take away. We don’t get Uber eats. We don’t get coffees to go. Simply put, we don’t eat or drink a single thing prepared by anyone other than ourselves.


Have you made changes since COVID, or is life pretty much the same?

Wishing you guys all the best during this bizarre time.
Stay safe and be kind to yourself.

EMK x