You know that hygiene is critical for protecting your family and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued a variety of instructions and guidelines on how to minimize your exposure. While people who live in apartments have the same issues as the rest of the population, they do have a few issues that are unique to people living in properties with multiple families.
Living in or managing a space that has common areas, mailbox clusters, trash chutes, and an abundance of door handles makes it a bit more difficult to protect those living in the facility. However, there are a few things that the CDC recommends for protecting those in these communal living facilities.
- Wash Your Hands Frequently – If you touch a common surface or another person, wash your hands. You should also wash your hands after you use the restroom, cough, sneeze, or blow your nose. Wash your hands before preparing or touching food and as soon as you get home from being out. When you wash your hands, be sure to use soap and water and rub your hands for at least 20 seconds.
- Avoid Close Contact with People – This may seem obvious, and it is more difficult in a community living area, but since you never know who is sick, try to minimize contact with others. Also try to limit spending time in common areas of your apartment building or touching surfaces that others may have touched.
- Have Hand Sanitizer Everywhere – If you are managing an apartment community it is likely that you don’t have sinks to wash hands in your common areas. Instead, be sure to provide hand sanitizer in common areas such as at the front desk and by the mailboxes and encourage people to use it often.
- Clean a Lot – Just like inside your apartment, high-traffic common areas should be cleaned and sanitized multiple times per day. Instruct your staff to disinfect surfaces such as the front desk, mailroom, game room, lobby restroom, door handles, elevators, and delivery areas often. Deliveries should be left in the lobby for residents to pick up and not taken directly to the apartments.
- Close the Garbage – Trash cans, both inside and outside, should have working lids that are kept closed. Garbage holding areas should be emptied and disinfected regularly.
- Don’t Come In, Or Go Out, If You’re Sick – Apartment management should make it clear to staff that they are not to come to work if they are sick. Sick employees will spread infection to residents. Apartment dwellers who have symptoms should do their best to stay in their own home and not be out and about, especially in areas that are shared with other residents.
- Be Transparent – If you are a resident, staff member, or visitor at an apartment complex, you should immediately notify management if you believe that you have coronavirus, especially if you have used common areas in the facility. This way other residents, staff, and visitors can be notified and take adequate precautions.
Living in or managing an apartment complex doesn’t mean that you are more at risk for an illness than any other person, but you do need to take adequate precautions to protect yourself. At Fresh Focus, we offer products and services that will clean your facilities and help protect your staff and residents. Contact us today to ask how we can help.
