Like most winters, the flu bug is rearing its ugly head.

Amy Bates with Merry Maids Tulsa recommends not just disinfecting but sanitizing commonly touched surfaces in your home every day.

Bates offers the following tips to wipe out the cold and flu bugs at home:

• The most commonly said, yet most commonly ignored: Washing your hands often.
• Sanitize children’s toys. Mix 1/4 a cup of bleach with a gallon of warm water to wipe down the toys. Be sure to rinse thoroughly and lay out to dry before. Cloth or stuffed toys can be thrown in the washing machine to kill bacteria.
• Use that same mixture of bleach and warm water to disinfect frequently touched surfaces. Doorknobs, TV remotes, refrigerator handles and anything else in high-traffic areas of the home.
• Wash all of your bedding! Even your comforter and any other blankets on your bed. Also, clean your pillows.
• Sanitize your thermometer- stick the end of it in a small glass of peroxide.
• Clean your toothbrush or get a new one.
• Disinfect commonly used areas in the kitchen, such as refrigerator/freezer door handles, knobs to cupboards, etc.
• Wipe down your cell phone, and steering wheel/dashboard in your car.

Bates says just cleaning once a week is not enough during cold and flu season. She recommends that you take 20 minutes a day to wipe these areas down.

Source: KRMG