Since it has become difficult to buy disinfectant spray and disinfectant wipes in some countries many people are looking online for homemade disinfectant solutions. The problem is many websites and blogs are touting a whole range of homemade, natural, alternative and holistic disinfectant recipes that are simply ineffective. This is bad enough during normal times but during this coronavirus pandemic, it is dangerous.

To be clear – as far as coronavirus is concerned, I would not be relying upon any disinfectant recipes that rely on essential oils (including tea tree), vinegar, lemon juice, vodka, bicarbonate of soda or witch hazel as the main germ/virus killing agent. Stick with bleach, hydrogen peroxide or alcohol, at the correct mixing ratios recommended for killing germs and viruses.

From my own research on the CDC website (see here, here and here), I have found the following products and ratios to be effective for killing germs and viruses, including coronavirus.

• Bleach — a bleach solution with bleach to water ratio of 1:10 will kill all germs and virus within ten minutes. The CDC state that a ratio 1:48 is effective for coronavirus (4 teaspoons per quart) so using a 1:10 ratio is more than adequate.
• Hydrogen peroxide — 3% hydrogen peroxide – will kill germs and viruses within ten minutes. The CDC state that commercially available 3% hydrogen peroxide is a stable and effective disinfectant when used on inanimate surfaces.
• Alcohol — alcohol solutions with at least 70% alcohol – will kill germs and viruses within a minute. The CDC state that 70% alcohol is effective for disinfecting and sanitizing.

Check out my two previous posts: How To Make A Disinfectant Spray From Bleach and How To Make Your Own Hand Emergency Sanitizer

Simple Homemade Disposable Disinfectant Wipes

You will need

• Kitchen towel/paper towel (try not to use cheap/thin kitchen towel as it will tear easily). To make more durable wipes, try using Jay cloths or other similar semi-disposable cleaning cloths. These could also possibly be cleaned and reused.
• Bleach
• Water
• Kitchen gloves/rubber gloves
• Mixing jug
• Baking tray or similar flat-bottomed container
• A Ziploc or sealable bag

Method

When bleach is diluted with water it starts to break down after 48 hours or so. With this in mind, I recommend making a small batch of disinfectant wipes every few days.

• Take the kitchen towel and carefully tear off 20-30 sheets. Stack them tidily one on top of the other in a stack. Place the stack of paper towel in the baking tray.
• Put on your kitchen gloves.
• Mix some bleach/water solution at 1:10 ratio in the mixing jug. Around 100ml of water and 10ml of bleach should be sufficient depending on the size/quantity of paper towel.
• Carefully pour some of the mixed bleach solution over the stack of paper towels (in the baking tray!). You just want enough solution to saturate the paper towel completely, nothing more.
• Leave to sit for a few minutes to be sure the paper towel is fully saturated.
• Now place your hand on top of the stack of paper towel and gently press down to squeeze out excess bleach solution into the baking tray. This bit is down to your own judgement. You don’t want the paper towel wipes to be dripping wet, but they obviously need to be wet enough to wipe down surfaces. You can fine-tune this over your first few batches until you find the consistency/moisture level that works best for you.
• Carefully place your new disinfectant wipes in a Ziploc or similar sealable bag. Keep sealed and use as necessary and dispose of in the bin.

Note — you could also adapt this to use 3% hydrogen peroxide instead of bleach. Hydrogen peroxide breaks down when exposed to light so you will need to store your wipes in a dark-coloured or opaque airtight container.

It’s recommended that you wear kitchen gloves when using these wipes as they are bleach-based. At the very least make sure you rinse your hands after using them…

Firstly a disclaimer of sorts… Simple cloth face masks like the ones featured here are NOT worn to protect you from catching coronavirus. They are worn to help protect others from being infected by you when you are in close proximity.

This is important with coronavirus for two reasons. Firstly, coronavirus can infect others for several days before you begin to experience any symptoms. Secondly, many people who catch coronavirus are asymptomatic. This means they get the virus and are capable of infecting others, but they experience no symptoms themselves. These two points are precisely why coronavirus is so successful at spreading and infecting lots of people…

These cloth face masks work by covering your mouth and nose and catching and reducing the number of droplets you cough, sneeze and breathe out. This reduces the number of virus particles emitted. This has two benefits — fewer emitted virus particles means there’s less chance of passing on the infection to those around you. Also, even if you do pass on the infection, their viral load (the amount of virus passed on) will likely be lower, which could mean the infected person gets a milder illness.

If lots of people wear simple face coverings (buffs and scarfs etc) or cloth masks when in towns and cities and crowded and confined places such as public transport, shops and places of work, this can dramatically reduce the spread of coronavirus in those places.

Note — The only way to completely protect yourself with a mask is if you wear a properly fitted medical, respirator style mask. Even then great care is required when putting on and taking it off to avoid infecting yourself with your hands or surfaces etc.

How To Make N0 Sew Reusable Face Masks

You can purchase simple, reusable face masks on Amazon and eBay etc, but to be honest, they are very simple to make out of an old t-shirt and then they don’t cost a penny either. Watch the videos below to see how it’s done.

The first video is by Dr Cellini. Dr Cellini is a senior diagnostic & interventional radiology doctor and he has a very popular YouTube channel. He has seen various styles of homemade face masks, but he recommends this particular DIY face mask. In this video, Dr Cellini makes his own face mask whilst following another tutorial from Jan Howell. I have also included Jan’s original video tutorial down below, in case you would rather just follow that tutorial instead.

It’s the end of March 2020 and most of us are stuck at home trying to slow down the spread of coronavirus. Regardless of the country we live in, we are all getting the same basic information and instructions – stay at home – social distancing – frequent hand washing – disinfect common points of contact in the home (door handles, taps, countertops etc).

The problem with the frequent hand washing is that due to panic buying, most stores have been sold out of soap and liquid hand soap for weeks now… You can still buy dish soap (washing up liquid) in most stores though. You could obviously use a squeeze of dish soap to wash your hands in a pinch, but neat dish soap is very strong. Using it more than a few times is likely to dry out and make your hands very sore.

The good news is — you can make a simple foaming hand wash from diluted dish soap! It is probably not the best thing to be washing your hands with longterm, but if you cannot get any soap or liquid hand wash, it’s a good alternative in the short-term.

**If you need a hand sanitizer for when you are out of the home (work or grocery shopping etc), check out our simple DIY hand sanitizer post.**

How To Make Foaming Hand Wash From Dish Soap

• You will need an empty foaming hand wash dispenser. Either rinse out an old one or you can purchase foaming pump dispensers from Amazon.
• Some dish soap (washing up liquid)

Instructions

• Pour some dish soap into the foaming hand wash dispenser. The amount will vary depending on the size of the dispenser. Usually, around 10% will be about right.
• Top up with water so that’s approx 90% water and 10% dish soap.
• Screw the pump top on and shake to mix the water and dish soap.
• Once mixed depress several times until the foam soap starts to come out.

Note: depending on the size of hand wash dispenser and the dish soap you use, you may need to slightly alter the dish soap to water ratio to get the best foam.

**If you are also struggling to find spray disinfectant in the shops — check out our post on how to make spray disinfectant from household bleach.**