Keeping Personal Items Clean During Thanksgiving Travel
Although researchers have debunked the myth that the day before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year, the holiday season is still a high-traffic season for travelers. Therefore, we focused on the top germ hotspots in airports and while aboard airplanes in our last article since those surfaces are especially germy during this time.
But the reality is that some of the germs we encounter while traveling for Thanksgiving can end up on our hands. With that, despite our best efforts, some of those germs will make it onto personal items. This can include our phones and laptops, which we often touch without thinking consciously about the germs being transferred to and from our hands.
This article is about how to boost our self-awareness about clean and dirty surfaces while traveling.
What You Should Know About Surface Transmission of Germs
Although we often think about germs spreading when someone coughs or sneezes, we usually don’t think about the chain through which those germs get into our bodies. We will take time out of our day to wash our hands, but we don’t think about all the germs we transferred from our hands to high-touch objects, like phones and laptops, in the interim.
The reality is that some pathogens are actually better suited for surface transmission.
How Easy is It to Transfer Germs to Clean Personal Items?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) clarifies that one crucial reason for keeping your hands clean is that germs on our hands can be transferred to objects when we touch them. But what does this mean for personal items like cell phones?
Effectively, surface types matter.
Nonporous surfaces have greater transferability for germs than porous surfaces.
But it’s imperative to clean steel, plastic, and touchscreens as often as possible. Germs collect on these nonporous surfaces and can transfer back onto our hands.
Tips for Keeping Personal Items Clean During Thanksgiving Travels
The point here is not to avoid touching anything at all costs – the point is to be strategic while traveling for Thanksgiving. You should have a plan to keep your items as clean as possible.
1. Don’t Just Focus on Keeping Environmental Surfaces Clean
While traveling for Thanksgiving, regardless of whether you opt for air travel or a bus ride, make sure that you take time to clean your personal items. Our attention while traveling is usually focused on high-touch surfaces in our environment, such as armrests and elevator buttons. For that reason, you should wash your hands frequently while traveling for Thanksgiving.
2. Make Sure You Have the Right Gear for Thanksgiving Travels
When it comes to keeping objects clean, we can have a different strategy from the one we use for our hands. The CDC emphasizes that frequent and proper handwashing with soap and water is the most effective way to keep our hands clean. But washing with soap and water isn’t always great for electronics. It can even be damaging to our possessions.
Make sure that while traveling for Thanksgiving, you remember to bring along your preferred tool to clean your personal items and prevent them from being germ receptacles.
Follow these recommendations and tips to keep your personal items clean this Thanksgiving season!
