Tips For A Safe Texas Thanksgiving During Covid

Like others in Texas, you are in eager anticipation of the Thanksgiving 2020 celebration. But you know this year’s events won’t be business as usual. The new normal brought upon by COVID-19 is a wake-up call to take extra measures to ensure you and your family stay safe despite the pandemic.

Nonetheless, you can still have a memorable and eventful Thanksgiving Day. It would help if you had a reminder of what to do and things to avoid as you mark this all-important holiday. That is what this article is all about.

Safety Tips for Thanksgiving Day

There’s a lot of information about how to stay safe during these festivities, but the best place to start is to follow what the health authorities, both state and federal, have to say about the safest way to celebrate this day. Let’s highlight what the experts have to say.

Avoid huge gatherings

Traditionally, Thanksgiving Day has been associated with large gatherings where crowds gather to enjoy various activities. However, this year, those huge family gatherings, your favorite holiday shopping spree, football games, and parades are things to avoid.

If you must do these things, it will help to do them from your home’s comfort and safety. For instance, you can watch football matches and parades on TV.

Keep Things Personal

Unlike in the past, when families would share everyday food utensils and common food items, this time around, it will be safer to avoid this practice. Instead, plate everything ahead of time and give everyone their plate.

Holiday Activities Classified By Risk

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued safety tips and guidelines to help you stay safe this festive season. These tips detail low-risk and moderate-risk activities that your family can engage in and some high-risk activities that you should avoid.

Lower-Risk Activities You Can Engage In

• Having a small dinner with people who live in your household
• Preparing traditional meals for family and friends and delivering them in a way that eliminates contact with others
• Sharing recipes and having virtual dinner with friends and family
• Shopping online instead of going out in person.
• Watching parades, sports events, and movies from home

Moderate-Risk Activities

• Having a smaller outdoor dinner with your family and friends who live in your community
• Follow CDC’s recommendations on cook-outs or hosting gatherings.
• Visiting pumpkin orchards or patches or orchards, where people use hand sanitizers before touching pumpkins or picking apples, are wearing masks, and maintain the recommended social distancing.
• Attending small outdoor sports events with safety precautions in place.

Higher-Risk Activities to Avoid

Avoiding these higher-risk activities will help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the CDC says

• Going shopping in crowded retail stores just before, on, or after Thanksgiving.
•  Participating or being one of the spectators at a crowded race
• Attending crowded parades.
• Using alcohol or drugs, which can distort judgment and increase risky behaviors.
• Attending large indoor gatherings in the company of people from outside of your household.

Maintain High Standards of Hygiene at Home

It looks like you might have to celebrate this year’s Thanksgiving at home. Even here, you have to maintain the highest standards of cleanliness possible. Your home should be pathogen-free for you, your family, and friends to stay safe from COVID 19.

Get Professional Cleaning Services

To ensure you have those high standards, the services of a reputable professional cleaning company are invaluable. Anytime you want high-quality cleaning service, before, during, and after the celebrations, contact Ready Set Maids! 

The team comprises highly qualified and experienced residential cleaners with many years of experience in this field. Get in touch today for a free quote.

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6 Best Measures To Stay Safe From COVID During The Holidays

Avoid singing or shouting near other people. You’ll find this and other useful holiday measures to prevent COVID-19 in this infographic.

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Halloween 2020: Be Safe From COVID-19 But Have Fun With These Tips

October is here, and with it comes the much-awaited Halloween festivities in Texas. You know these celebrations are a favorite for the entire family. You must be getting ready to give your family a treat of a lifetime this holiday.

There are costumes to buy, spine-tingling stories to tell, and plenty of outdoor activities. Yes, the kids will love it when they go door to door, collecting as many candies as they can. But this year’s celebrations are going to be quite different compared to all the past festivals. 

COVID 19 Personal Responsibility for the Entire Family

If you’re a parent, an uncle, brother, or just love your family, you want to ensure they remain safe even during these festivities. One of the most significant concern currently is the challenge posed by COVID -19. This virus is wreaking havoc around the planet. So, you need to know how to celebrate Halloween safely. A few tips will suffice. 

Observe all the protocols for keeping COVID -19 and any other pathogens at bay. All family members must wear their face masks every time they are in public. You know how excited kids can get. Amid this excitement, they can move quickly through caution to the wind and either forget to wear their masks or fail to wear them correctly. As a parent, be the role model. Show them by example how to wear the cover at all times. 

Washing their hands with soap and water or using an alcohol-based sanitizer should be part and parcel of their lives, especially during the celebrations. This especially true now that they will come into contact with numerous gifts and even surfaces. The need to sanitize regularly and avoiding touching their noses, eyes, and mouths must be paramount. 

As much as the family might spend quite some time outdoors, it’s important to emphasize the need for all members to keep a significant distance from one another. Social distancing has become part of life, and no matter how happy the family gets, everyone should ensure they stay a responsible distance from one another.

In case you have minors who might not be in a position to take personal responsibility, the task shifts to you. That is how to celebrate Halloween this year. You have to ensure all the surfaces in your home are clean and properly sanitized.

Tips for Safe Trick or Treating

Following some simple yet effective rules will help the entire family to avoid scary situations. Ensure family members wear flame-resistant costumes and good masks that allow for unhindered vision. Beware of any props such as capes, beards, and wigs that can get caught. Have all members wear sturdy shoes that will prevent twisted ankles.

Always ensure the family stays together as a group so that no one deviates from the chosen route. The front stoops and walkways should be free from obstacles that might otherwise cause someone to trip, and remember to inspect the candies before your kids dive in.

Professional Cleaning Services, TX

While it’s true this year’s Halloween celebration might pose some challenges to families, you don’t have to compromise your family’s safety and security. There will be plenty of preparations to make, and maybe you might even be feeling somewhat overwhelmed. If that is the case, take heart, there is help available.

Ready Set Maids of Houston is a professional cleaning company that will help you keep COVID -19 and other unwanted microbes away from your family this Halloween. You can count on this team of experienced cleaners to clean all your highly-touched surfaces in a way that will keep disease-causing micro-organisms away from your family. 

Let these dedicated cleaners work on your faucets, doorknobs, counter tables, and so on. Contact Ready Set Maids for thorough cleaning of your home in readiness for this year’s Halloween celebrations.

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7 Great Costume Ideas (Face Mask Included) For A Fun And Safe Halloween 2020

This Halloween 2020, your costume must include a face mask to stay safe from COVID-19. Discover your spooky outfit here!

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Fall is Coming 5 Must-Dos For Effective Home Maintenance

There’s never a better time to take good care of your home, ensuring even the little things in your home are in place. We’ve compiled some tips for fall home maintenance so you can complete the maintenance job done quickly. 

That said, here’s a simple fall home maintenance checklist that can help you even if you’re new to cleaning. 

Care for trees 

Get your trees in order by booking a consultation with an arborist. A professional cleaner helps you determine whether your trees are healthy, looking for any signs of deteriorating health. They’ll enable your trees to last longer, as they’ll prune correctly, preventing falling limbs during winter storms. 

If you can’t hire a professional, you can care for the trees yourself. Look for any signs of change in color, pines thinning, needles getting a brown color, and falling dead branches.

Check for Pests

Pests love hiding in attics. These spaces provide warm insulation for nesting pests, on top of offering access to the remaining rooms in your home. Erect a screen behind your attic’s gable vents to keep the pets away. 

But installing a screen may not be enough – pests can still bypass the barriers. So, you 

should regularly check their preferred hiding places: under kitchen cupboards. 

Inspect Your Furnace

Contact a heating professional to check whether your furnace is intact for the upcoming fall season. A checkup will set you back just a few bucks. With an annual contract, however, you’ll save about 20% of the average prices. 

Also, don’t let the filters overstay; ensure you replace them regularly. Ideally, after two months, you should upgrade to new ones. And if you have never changed them, now is the ideal time. For HVACs that come with humidifiers, get your contractor to change their filters. 

Take Care of Exterior Walls

Check whether your wall’s paint is blistering. Eroding paint signals that the film you’ve put in place fails, meaning it doesn’t protect your building’s siding adequately. If you don’t fix it, the siding will also deteriorate, costing you big bucks in the future. 

Inspect smoke detectors

Checking detectors only takes you very few minutes but can be a life-saving chore. Check whether your alarms are still operating. Ensure your detector’s indicator light is on. Hold down the test button and confirm whether the alarm works. Install new batteries and a carbon monoxide detector if you don’t have it. 

Protect your outdoor furniture

Leaving your outdoor furniture unattended in the face of harsh weather can be very costly to you. If you want your furniture to last longer, possibly many more summer seasons, store them in a safe garden outbuilding. But you don’t need a garden and shed to keep your furniture safe. You can get yourself a waterproof cover for just a few bucks. This cover will protect your prized belongings for a long time, enabling it to combat heavy rain. 

Contact us today

Now that you have some tips for home maintenance for fall seasons, you’re better equipped to keep your home tidy during this season. If you want to get your maintenance to the next level, you can book a consultation with us, and we’ll discuss how to bring your home’s original allure. The professionals at Ready Set Maids are ready for any cleaning job. Give us a call today.

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6 Parenting Tips To Protect Your Child’s Mental Health If Returning To School

Help your kids cope with negative emotions if returning to school. Check these mental health tips to help them manage anxiety.

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6 Good Practices To Stay Safe At Parks And Restaurants

It’s still summer, and everyone wants to enjoy the good weather. But, with the pandemic still ongoing and many restrictions back in place in Texas, we can’t lower our guard and good hygiene practices. In his blog, we cover some safety measures to follow while going to parks or restaurants (if they are open in your area). Although you might already be using face coverings and keeping your distance, the following points address details that you might overlook. Stay safe and well! Keep reading this blog.

• Research the sites.

First of all, search for the official websites of your local restaurants and parks. Check for the preventive measures they are applying to ensure the safety of their personnel and clients. For parks, there are usually reduced hours schedule, no public restrooms, and some areas with restrictions, but you can often enjoy a walk or hike session with more-or-less normality. On the other hand, restaurants need to apply more measures: 6-feet of separation between tables, outdoor dining options, staff with masks and gloves, frequent disinfection in high-touch areas, and digital or disposable menus. Phone them if you don’t find the necessary info. 

• Bring your own supplies.

Carrying your bottle, cutlery, and even plates can be very useful during these times. While hiking with friends, it’s a bad idea to share drinks or food, instead, use your supplies and maintain the distance with them. At restaurants, carrying your cutlery can be unnecessary, but if it brings you peace of mind, use your own spoon or fork.

• Stay in well-ventilated areas.

You might know that the outdoors are safer because the virus tends to dilute, reducing the risk of infection. There’s no problem here in parks, but you have to pay attention to restaurants or any indoor area. Check how many windows are open, and if they are offering outdoor dining options. Remember that the best way to prevent COVID-19 is to avoid exposure, so if you’re staying inside anywhere out of your home, do it for a short time.

• Skip salads, drinks stations, and buffets.

Ideally, restaurants won’t offer buffets, drink filling stations, and salad bars because these spots require the use of everyday utensils or dispensers. If you have to wait in line for a service, keep your distance from others, and consider touchless payment.

• Pay online and ask for delivery.

Speaking of which, a well-prepared restaurant will have all the touchless payment options available. The best way is by using your phone for online payment. Also, if you’re feeling anxious or part of the high-risk population, it’s better to have your food delivered. Tell your delivery guy to leave your food outside in a safe spot.

• Don’t be afraid to be impolite.

There’s no need to be rude, but nobody was ready for this pandemic, and most of us aren’t used to asking for more space. Also, seeing a friend on the street can make us forget our good practices. So, always remember that your health is first, and ask politely to keep the distance from you, don’t give out hugs, avoid handshaking, etc. Even if the other person thinks this is exaggerating, just be as polite as possible and say that you’re only following health recommendations. It’s not personal

Now you know a little more about how to stay safe in summer. Keep protecting your health! Remember that Ready Set Maids are offering affordable cleaning and disinfecting services. Book your home service online.

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