It's official. Fall is here. And that means that colder weather is on its way. And with it comes changing and fickle weather conditions: rain, wind, sunshine and maybe even freezing temperatures. These are all things that are difficult for the body to cope with when there are big fluctuations in temperature and humidity, which can dry out our skin.
That's why this month's Cleaning for Generations focuses on hand care.
Our hands are one of the most important things we have. Without them, we can be somewhat paralyzed in some respects, and several tasks that are usually trivial become a challenge to overcome. In the fall and winter months, we focus on them more than any other time of the year. This is, of course, due to the fact that we are more prone to colds and illness during these months. Naturally, during the COVID-19 period, there was also an increased focus on health and hygiene, including hand hygiene.
And that's why we take extra care to wash our hands during the winter months. With the increased amount of hand washing that our hands are exposed to; our skin and hands are also much more prone to drying out. Therefore, at this time of year, it's even more important to maintain good hand hygiene and, most importantly, hand care.
Read below our top tips and tricks to take even better care of your hands during the winter months.
Wash your hands often. Just think about how many different surfaces, and therefore bacteria, your hands are in contact with throughout the day. Door handles and faucets are some of the contact surfaces where the risk of contact infection is highest. However, physical contact, such as handshakes, hugs and kisses are naturally greater. Therefore, wash your hands often and especially if you have been in contact with some of the major infection points. A good rule of thumb is also to wash your hands before cooking and eating to minimize the risk of infection.
Too frequent hand washing can also dry out your hands. That's why one of our main focuses in our hand soaps is on nourishing and effective ingredients that naturally clean your hands while nourishing, moisturizing, and smelling great. Find our nourishing hand soaps in 5 different scents with a matching hand lotion to take extra care of your hands.
Change your towels frequently, preferably daily. With the onset of winter, we are, as mentioned, more aware of hygiene and at the same time the heat is once again turned on. Damp and warm towels are the ideal habitat for bacteria. And not everyone is as thorough with the hot water and soap. Therefore, always pay extra attention to washing your textiles during the winter months.
Don't sneeze or cough into space, but instead in a tissue or in your sleeve. If there's one thing we've learned from the pandemic, it's how bad we used to be at minimizing the risk of droplet infection. Droplet transmission is infection by droplets that are spread in the air, e.g., by a cough, sneeze, or singing/speaking/shouting. Therefore, always cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing. And pay special attention to washing your hands afterwards.
Clean your keyboard, phone, and mouse regularly. Studies show that our most common electronic devices are germ bombs. Imagine all the germs your hands are in contact with, and all of these are transferred to our phones and passed on to keyboards, computer mouse and many other surfaces throughout your day. It is therefore important to also clean these objects regularly to reduce the spread of disease via contact surfaces.
Use hand sanitizer. We are not always near a sink when we need to use it. It may therefore be necessary to use alternatives, such as hand sanitizer, until you have the opportunity to wash your hands.