I’ve always been a bit of a germ-a-phobe, but once I had my daughter, I kicked it into high gear. It started in the NICU where you must wash your hands before even entering the room, and the doctors recommend using hand sanitizer frequently once you take your newborn home to protect him or her from germs. Kids will be exposed to germs and get colds, sure, but a nurse I spoke with came down on parents who think that these precautions are unnecessary, saying that the types of super-bugs around now are way scarier than anything we had to deal with as youngsters.
So, especially in those newborn days, I was sanitizing toys, pacifiers and hands around the clock. I’ve relaxed quite a bit since then, but as it’s cold and flu season, I took Scotch-Brite up on its offer to send me its new Scotch-Brite Botanical Disinfecting wipes. I buy the brand’s sponges loyally, but I’d never tried the wipes.
For whatever reason (pregnancy clumsiness, perhaps?) I had a hard time getting the first Breeze-scented wipe threaded through the lid—I kept pulling out more than one wipe at a time—but once I got it figured out, I began my kitchen cleaning spree with a vengeance. I wiped the table, highchair, trashcan, the stove and countertops galore.
Made from botanically pure plant extracts, the wipes are safe for use around kids and pets. Plus, they don’t require rinsing, so you can wipe food-preparation areas with no problems. After my scrub down, my kitchen smelled clean—and with a kiddo, a dog and a serious lack of time to deep clean, that isn’t something I can say very often! Better yet, the smell wasn’t medicinal or chemically, just light and fresh. Can I say that it actually killed 99.9 percent of household germs? Not without pulling out my petri dish. But I did feel my kitchen was way cleaner and fresher than it has been in recent days.