My husband did our weekly food shopping on Saturday. While I was unloading the plastic shopping bags, I decided that it might be a good idea for me to wipe everything down before I put it away. I used a spray household cleanser (non-toxic!) and a paper towel. I sprayed the paper towel and wiped down the surfaces on all the bags, bottles and boxes before I put them away. I wiped down the pickle jar, the bag of salad, the box of pasta and the bag of pretzels. I washed the blueberries, the tomatoes and the asparagus in the sink and threw away the packaging they came in. I even wiped down the outside of the plastic bag that our potatoes came in, but not the potatoes themselves. I guess I figured the hot boiling water would take care of that for us.
I threw away all the plastic shopping bags — our state has gone plastic-bag free. We are now supposed tp use reusable bags or pay 5 cents for brown paper bags, but with the current situation, the stores are allowed to use the plastic bags again during this pandemic. Normally I would save all those plastic bags to line my bathroom trash cans or my husband would use them for his lunch bag. Not anymore, they went right in the trash.
After I put all the wiped down items away, I sprayed all the countertops with cleaner and wiped them all down. Everything sparkled and I kind of felt good for putting in the effort. Sure it took me an extra 15 minutes to go through this process, but I was protecting the health of my family.
Tonight my husband stopped at the liquor store and picked up a few bottles of wine. I unpacked the bag, and restocked our wine cabinet. It was only afterwards that I realized I didn’t wipe down a single thing…and I felt pretty silly that I had made such a big production two days before, but not today. Maybe I just figured the alcohol would kill all the germs?
Notes from a Self Quarantine 