Kids come into constant contact with your floors - they play with toys while sitting on the floor; sometimes they lay on the floor to take a nap; and sometimes they stretch out to watch a TV show.
That's why you spend time with a mop and a vacuum - to keep a clean, safe place for those precious children. But... despite your efforts, your floors may be the source of their illnesses.
Start with the bacteria that gets tracked into the house from your welcome mat. One study reported that nearly 96% of all shoe soles carried coliform bacteria! Not exactly what you want your children exposed to.
The welcome mat is where family and guests stop to scrape off any loose dirt on the bottom of their shoes. But loose dirt isn't what can make you sick. It's the bacteria that find a home in the fibers of that rug. Especially during wet seasons, when the rug stays damp for days on end, that bacteria can grow and thrive - and attach itself to every shoe that passes by.
If you enter your home through the kitchen, as many do, that bacteria is right there, where you're cooking. And where a child is apt to drop a cookie and then retrieve it, or where small children might be playing with toys that ultimately end up in their mouths.
The only solution - beyond leaving ALL shoes outside the door - is to mop the floor daily with a mild bleach solution.
What if guests enter through the front door, and walk straight on to your carpets? Naturally, the bacteria on their shoes will find a home in that carpet. And that brings us to the second source of trouble - your vacuum cleaner.
Vacuum cleaners are a wonderful breeding ground for bacteria. Not only does the bag fill up with bits of food it can feed on, the brushes become contaminated with every bacteria they pass by. Once on the brushes, that bacteria can be spread from corner to corner in every carpeted room in your home.
What to do? First, change your bags often - taking the vacuum outside first, so you don't release a "cloud" of bacteria into your homes. If you have a bagless vacuum, clean clean the cavity with a diluted bleach solution. Let it air dry before putting the vacuum cleaner back together. Then, spray a disinfectant on the brushes after each use.
The danger from contaminated shoes is well-known to those in the dog breeding industry. They know that the deadly Parvo virus can come in on shoes even when the wearer has not been near a sick dog. That's why when you visit a well-run puppy kennel, you'll either be asked to remove your shoes, or to first step in a bleach solution.
The human ailments that can come into your home on shoes may not be as life-threatening as the Parvo virus is to puppies, but why subject you and your children to the threat?
