It can be a total real-life nightmare to walk into your kitchen in the middle of the night to see mice having a feast on your discarded dishes. Of course, your first instinct is to clean your dishes right away. However, you need to know a few essential pointers regarding how to clean dishes after mice to ensure that you and your family don’t catch any disease brought about by these pesky rodents.
Ventilate the Area
Ventilate your kitchen first by opening all doors and windows. Remove all the curtains. Since you will be doing disinfection, you will have to work with materials and chemicals with solid scents. The last thing you want is to inhale all of these odors. It is also recommended to have proper ventilation to ensure that the scent won’t linger for too long inside your kitchen and your house as a whole.
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Wear the Correct Protective Gear
Remember that you will use plenty of cleaning agents, and you surely wouldn’t want to ingest or inhale any of these harsh chemicals. To keep yourself protected, it is a must that you use the correct pieces of protective gear.
It would be best if you used hand gloves for your hands. You can find gloves made of vinyl and rubber, while others are made of latex.
You must use an apron for your body or any other type of body gear that you use when cleaning around your home. You can also use eye gear to keep your eyes protected from cleaning chemicals that might accidentally enter your eyes.
Use Hot Water and Soap to Wash Your Silverware and Dishes
You can use dish soap and hot water when washing your dishes. This cleaning solution is safe to use, even for metals and silverware. Use a scrubber sponge to clean your dishes thoroughly.
Mix 10 Parts Water with 1 Part Bleach
Once you have protected yourself adequately, you can now mix your cleaning materials. For this purpose, you can mix ten parts of water with 1 part of bleach. You can also pour some vinegar into a water jar with diluted lemon peels. These cleaning solutions are all acidic and can help disinfect your dishes and your kitchen.
Use Bleach Mixture for Extra Disinfection
A bleach solution can also be used if you want. However, be careful as it may cause poisoning. Ensure that you also rinse everything properly so that the bleach residue will all be washed away from your dishes.
Also, it is good to note that bleach may ruin metal and silverware, so it is best not to use this cleaning solution for such pieces.
Spray Disinfectant on Countertops and Sink
Look for spots where mice may have left their urines and droppings that are often seen as small clear yellowish liquid stains. You can also track the activity of these rodents by searching for their nest then begin your cleaning from there.
When you find these urines and droppings, spray these with disinfectant with the use of your chosen material. An ordinary spray bottle can be used for this purpose although you can also find manual pressure sprays that are often easier to use.
You can also clean your tables and countertops using a good microfiber cloth. It may be enough to use dish soap that is diluted in water but a bleach solution can also work fine if you like to use one.
Let It Sit for 5 Minutes Before Wiping It Clean
Letting the solution soak for 5 minutes can help dissolve any traces of infestations and germs brought about by mice’s urine and droppings.
It will ensure that you can also easily get rid of the traces, particularly in the case of urines and droppings that vaporized already and transformed into stains.
Wipe the Area with Tissue Paper
To ensure that contamination doesn’t spread further, use only clean tissue paper to wipe the spots where you find mice’s urine and droppings. Always discard the dirty tissue paper after every use.
Use Bleaching Solution to Disinfect Your Floors
Once you have wiped down the places with urine and dropping, you can now use the cleaning solution for wiping down the floor.
Wash Covers, Linens, Cloths and Others Right Away
It would be useless to clean if you don’t change the sheets. This is the perfect time for you to remove then wash all the items that you need to wash such as the covers, carpets, and others.
Check Food Boxes for Any Possible Contamination
It is very much possible that mice have invaded the kitchen the most since this is the part of your house where you put all your food. Your kitchen is also the number one reason why these rodents are in your home in the very first place.
Make sure you check for any contamination. Inspect every food item and check if any noticeable mouse bites on these. Discard anything and everything that has mouse bites and other things that might have already been infected with their urine or droppings.
This is an important part that you should never skip, so you must be very meticulous in this step.
Wipe Appliances and Steam Clean Sofas
Your upholstered sofas might need some extra effort because you need to steam them properly to disinfect them. There are also furniture pieces that may need other kinds of cleaning ingredients that specifically cater to the furniture’s material.
Other Things to Do When You are Done Cleaning Dishes After Mice
- Throw your garbage right away.
Once you are done disinfecting and cleaning, discard your garbage immediately. Never wait until the next day before disposing of your trash to prevent recontamination because this garbage might attract mice all over again.
- Discard excess cleaning chemicals and cleaning bleach.
Make sure you also get rid of excess bleach as well as other cleaning solutions that you didn’t use. Many cleaning solutions can be toxic once ingested so always discard them immediately after use.
- Remove your gloves and wash your hands thoroughly.
Once you are done cleaning and you made sure that all nooks and corners of your house have been disinfected, you can remove your gloves then wash your hands properly after you do so.
We also recommend you to learn how to clean stains off corelle dishes.