While both cleaning and disinfection are crucial to making your residential and commercial properties safe and healthy, they don’t necessarily serve the same purpose. Most of our customers ask us one simple question – “What is the difference between regular cleaning and disinfection?”And our answer remains always the same.
The difference is in the details. Now, we believe it’s important for you to know the difference between the two. Therefore, we have created this short post to help you understand how regular cleaning is different from disinfection or sanitization. Let’s get started!
Cleaning
Let’s begin with cleaning and understand how this process helps you deal with germs, viruses, and bacteria. Assume you are starting with a surface covered with soil and viruses
What is cleaning?
Cleaning is the process that is executed before sanitizing or disinfecting. In this, you need to clean or remove any visible debris from the surface before you start treating it. We are talking about loose soil, dust, or any unwanted item. Impurities on a surface will make it difficult for you to disinfect or sanitize any surface. Therefore, always ensure that you get rid of them through cleaning.
What is used in cleaning?
But, you cannot execute cleaning using any product. There are many cleaning-specific products out there that will help you get better results. We highly recommend you use an all-purpose cleaning agent and a microfiber cloth to trap all the dust or soil.
However, cleaning agents is just one side of the story. You need to follow the right procedure for cleaning as well. First of all, you need to understand that cleaning kills nothing. The viruses and bacteria breeding on a surface won’t die with cleaning.
Cleaning will only loosen the dust and dirt accumulated on the surface. Once you treat the surface with a cleaning agent and leave for a few minutes, it will become easier for you to trap all the visible impurities using a microfiber towel.
Disinfection
After cleaning, you are left with nothing but the germs, bacteria, and viruses breeding on the surface. How do you get rid of them? You do that by sanitizing or disinfecting the surface. Let’s learn more about disinfection.
What is disinfecting?
Disinfecting is used to kill germs on a surface. It is ineffective if you use disinfectants to remove soil or dirt from the surface. Once you have used cleaning agents and broken through the soil, you can start using disinfectants to break through the germs as well.
What is used in disinfection?
In this, you will use a disinfectant liquid or solution that will contain either quaternary ammonium chloride, hypochlorite, or peroxide. Different types of disinfectants have different purposes as well.
These disinfectants are known to kill 100% of the germs spreading on the surface. However, you need to make sure you treat the surface well with the disinfectant. Once applied, you need to let the disinfectant sit for a few minutes.
The dwell time will differ with respect to the kind of disinfectant being used. Make sure the disinfectant you are using stays on the surface for the recommended dwell time otherwise you will not get the desired results. To know the recommended dwell time, connect with the disinfectant’s manufacturer or try finding it on the product itself.
Over to You
Well, that’s pretty much it. The difference between cleaning and disinfecting, as we mentioned earlier, is in the details. They both serve different purposes but are dependent on each other too! Without cleaning and disinfecting, you just cannot know if a property is fit enough for regular use. Now that you know the difference between the two, make sure you execute the cleaning and disinfecting procedure for maximum impact!
