How to Keep Your Home Germ Free During Cold and Flu Season

Wondering how to keep your home germ free during cold and flu season? Here are some great tips!

From colds to flu to coronavirus, parents everywhere are anxious about germs. If Moms and Dads are sick at the same time as the kids, life can be very difficult. In my efforts to preventing sickness, I am as proactive as possible at keeping germs out of our house.  Here is how to keep your home germ free during cold and flu season.

How to Keep Your Home Germ Free During Cold and Flu Season

Updated for 2025: These tips are still some of the best ways to protect your home during cold & flu season.

Change into germ free clothes after school

Did you know you can carry germs from outside into your home without being sick?

Every day when Annabelle and Ailey come home from school, they wash their hands. Then my children change clothes, which are usually dirty from the playground in addition to possibly containing germs. We also keep school shoes at the back door. 

The germs children could bring home from school range from slightly scary to frightening. We are all still traumatized from the two day vomiting virus Annabelle wore home a few years ago. We used this spray to kill any remnants of the virus, but we are still scarred by the memories.

Wipe Down Commonly Touched Areas

Another way to kill germs is by wiping down handles for the door, cabinets, toilet, faucet, etc. If you think about how many times those areas are touched in your home on a daily basis, it is shocking.  

While wearing a pair of plastic gloves, use Clorox Wipes to wipe down remote controls, the toothbrush holder, doorknobs, etc. If you don’t like to use harsh chemicals in your home, there are plenty of natural ways to disinfect your home using vinegar or essential oils.

An item I never forget to clean in my daughter’s bathroom: the step stool. The girls (and their friends) use this frequently when washing their hands or using the bathroom. Sometimes the step stool finds its way around the house too, so I make sure to wipe it down whenever I can. Cleaning all corners of the bathroom is essential, as well as these tips for surviving the stomach flu.

Clean Toys in the Bathtub with Bleach

Do not forget bathroom toy disinfecting tips for flu season. There are a few ways I keep my daughters’ toys clean.

1. For a deep clean, I soak the toys in Clorox ® Regular Liquid Bleach. I mix 1/2 cup of Clorox ® Regular Liquid Bleach with 1 gallon of water (I fill it up 1/3 of the way) in the bathtub. Then I add washable colorfast toys or anything non-porous, hard and plastic to the water. After letting the toys soak for 5 minutes, I rinse them with fresh water and allow the toys to air dry. Don’t forget to squeeze excess water out of toys!

2. For toys that cannot soak in the bathtub, I like to wipe them down with the best disinfecting wipe or homemade cleaning spray. I use a mixture of vinegar, water, and Thieves essential oil. The dollhouse is one of the most played with toys in our playroom by my daughters and their friends, so I’m always wiping it down. Who knows what germs (and random snacks) are hiding in that house sometimes?

3. It helps to Disinfect Common Areas to Prevent Colds and Flu at Home with a Clorox or Lysol spray. There are so many options for disinfecting sprays to kill germs from the flu and cold for your home though. This is the best disinfectant spray to use after we have the Norovirus in our house – it kills the puking bug and it’s great to have on hand. (Read more about what to do if you have the stomach bug in your home).

Just Wipe Down ALL the Toys!

With cold and flu season at its peak during the winter, use my cleaning and disinfecting tips to keep your family germ free. Looking for ways to have fun at home during flu season?

This post is not sponsored and all opinions are my own.