Hygene in Halls

How to stay healthy during your stay at Halls of Residence.


If your halls are anything like the ones I've visited, you'll know full well why I'm writing this. I know that certain standards have to be met by the halls of residence for students to live in them, and some are better than others. Despite this, there is a different person living in each room, every year, and over the years, stuff's going to build up.

First off, the carpet. It'll most likely be that wirewool chord type stuff you remember from primary school. When you move in, be sure to throw some baking soda over it and hoover it up before you get your stuff in - that'll sort out all the little buggies in there, and all the other bits of fluff, hair, food and bacteria from previous students.

Secondly, the walls. I know this sounds weird, but my boyfriend noticed some splashmarks up his wall in halls. We sprayed some antibacterial bleach spray to get rid of them, and the wall was a shade lighter in that spot! We then went over all the walls with the spray - no harm done to the paint, the room looked brighter and we felt way better for it!

Not much you'll be able to do about the mattress unfortunately, apart from double up on bottom sheets and wash your bedcovers at least once a week.

Drains: if your room has its own sink, throw some bleach down there. If the room has a bad smell, it's probably the stagnant dirty water in the drains after a summer of no use. Bleach the whole sink, and the taps completely too, just to lift any dust, mildew and mould. You'll be washing your hands in that thing remember.

Handles - anything you touch, or put stuff on, you should clean and polish first. Door handles, locks, drawers, everything. Sounds like I'm going overboard? I get my boyfriend to do all these things on a regular basis, but unfortunately his flatmates don't. He picked something up from one of them (shared bathroom) and ended up bedbound for 12 hours, throwing up 11 times before we could get a doctor out to give him an injection. Fun eh?

Kitchen area - Wipe down all surfaces before you start cooking, keep your own cutlery and utensils away from everyone elses, don't let it all stagnate in the sink, and make sure you clean your cupboard area out too before you put your stuff in. There was a spider in one of the kitchen cupboard in my first year - a big one. So you know it wasn't short of things to eat either.

Bathroom - "But the cleaners come in and do that for us" I hear you say. Once a week, for some flats is NOT enough. If you're within earshot of the bathroom, you'll know what I mean, and probably want to throw some bleach down before you use the toilets too. In saying that, some are cleaner than others, some cleaners are more thorough than others, but you don't want to leave your health in someone elses hands. E.Coli is a serious virus, so always make sure you have some toilet cleaner to use (and clean the seat and handles as well) at the opposite end of the week to your cleaner, so it's getting done twice. If you get to know your flatmates, you could even chip in together for cleaning products or have a rota of who does what.


Food Hygene
I have a strong need to add a bit on food to this post. When handling raw meat, especially chicken, you MUST wash your hands and anything else that has touched the chicken. You can't afford to forget about it, and always make sure it's cooked through, right to the centre - no pink.

If you have leftovers from dinner, be it pasta, pizza or even a sandwich or something, wrap it up airtight, in a container, tin foil or cling film and put it in the fridge once it has cooled to room temperature. It should then be ok for up to two days.
If something is left in your room overnight, don't even think about it - the heat will have more than quadrupled the number of bacteria living on it.