Thread.

My husband is a rocket scientist (no, really). As such, he spends a lot of time in NASA standards clean rooms and knows his way around contamination protocols. He's designated himself our "procurement officer" and is the only one who leaves the house.

(my little family is taking this crisis *very* seriously).

A friend asked our advice on how to keep her house a "clean room," and I thought I'd share with you what I told her. Here's how we do it:

First, designate ONE person to leave the house. Every time. Any way you can limit contact with the "outside" is important.

If you have to go out, try to get several pairs of gloves and put some wipes in a baggie to take with you.

(if you don't have these things, plastic bags and rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle will also do the trick. Grab some paper towels in this case, as well)

Have you wiped down your car yet? Do that; wipe down everything you touch in the car - wheel, handles, shift gear, seat belt buckle. Make sure the car is clean when you leave. Throw some laundry baskets or cardboard boxes in your trunk.

When you go to the store, wear one pair of gloves (if you don't have gloves, go to the produce section and nick a few veggie bags; they work in a pinch). You can clean off your cart if you want, but you don't really have to.

Only touch what you intend to buy. Do not touch your face, even with the gloves.

Re-cart your items after they're scanned and roll them back to your car. Put them in your laundry baskets/boxes in the trunk. Put on NEW gloves before you get into your car to keep that space as clean as possible.

When you get home (and still wearing the gloves), take out of the laundry baskets everything that can be wiped down with wipes or sprayed down with Lysol.

Do this on the deck if possible, or in the garage (if you can, leave things out in the sun; UV light is bad for viruses and will shorten their lives on things like plastic (laundry soap and juice bottles and such), some fruits (do you have insect nets?) and chip and bread bags.

Working with a partner if you have one, open boxes (things like cereal and crackers) and have them (with new gloves or freshly cleaned hands) remove the bags inside. Bring the bags in; break the boxes down and leave them outside if you can.

Pour things like pasta into clean containers or bins.

We're avoiding fresh fruit for the time being; it's not clear that a vinegar wash will kill the virus, and we're not taking chances.

Once you've got everything cleaned/decanted, throw out all the gloves you used for the trip and spray down the laundry basket/s with Lysol. Go back with wipes and re-clean the car and your keys and your door knobs.

Really; clean everything you touched, or even THINK you touched

If it makes you feel better (and it does me), throw your clothes in the laundry and take a good, hot shower with lots of soap.

Ideally, you want to designate one person to do the "dirty" work and one person to handle the "clean" things. Husband does the cleaning, then puts the clean things on the garage steps, then I bring them in.

Then, he goes straight to the basement, strips all his clothes straight into the washing machine, then marches upstairs to the shower, and I follow behind him with a cloth and a bottle of bleach cleaner, hitting doorknobs and railings and faucets.

The goal is to think of your house as a "clean" zone. You don't want to introduce anything into the house,

so you want to do all your cleaning/sanitizing on the deck or garage or, if you can, go straight into the basement; you can establish a cleaning station down there. We have a garage; so that's where our cleaning happens.

Does it seem like overkill? Sure, but he's gone out once or twice a week for the last month, and we're all still healthy, so take from that what you will.

/end