How to fight viruses, bacteria that can lurk in your home
Your own house or apartment might be a breeding ground for unseen "bugs" that can cause sickness or even death.
Q. My sister came to stay at our house for a couple of days last week, and she broke out with measles about 72 hours after she left. Is there a way to disinfect our home to kill any virus that she may have left behind?
A. It wouldn't hurt to give your home a thorough scrubbing, including the use of an over-the-counter disinfectant on your kitchen and bathroom tiles. But the truth is, if you're going to get measles, you've probably already been exposed. That's because people with measles can spread the disease from four days before their own rash appears to four days after the flat red dots start showing up.
Your best bet now is to monitor yourself and your loved ones for symptoms. Besides the rash, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says other telltale signs include a high fever, a constant cough, a runny nose and red, watery eyes. Consider visiting a doctor if you think you are infected.
Still, there are several steps you can take around your home to defend against other illnesses.
Your kitchen sponge is likely the property's biggest bacteria trap: It's almost always moist, and you probably use it to constantly wipe up crumbs and spills, which creates an ideal environment for the growth of dangerous E. coli and salmonella. Health experts say you should regularly throw the sponges into your automatic dishwasher so its heated drying circle can kill the germs, or put them in a microwave-safe dish with an inch of water at the bottom and zap them for a minute or two.
The kitchen sink is a big breeding ground, too, in part because it's wet and the hot water you run when rinsing dishes or using the garbage disposal creates a veritable playground for bacteria from uncooked meat and poultry. Stainless-steel sinks should be scrubbed with a disinfecting cleanser daily, while ceramic or cast-iron sinks can be cleansed with a mix of one gallon of water and a tablespoon or two of bleach. That same mixture can be used to clean a wooden cutting board after each use, while most plastic boards can go into the dishwasher.
Toilets should be scrubbed and disinfected at least once a week, or more frequently if, say, you have a large family or only one bathroom.
Ironically, the water that comes out of your tap in the morning can be chock-full of bacteria, too, because it sat inside your old piping system all night. Experts say you should run the tap for a minute or so to clear out germs before you fill your coffee maker or jump into the shower.
Finally, if someone in your family recently caught a cold or has the flu, don't necessarily blame the chilly weather: Your television's remote control might be the bad guy. After all, if you're like most Americans who fall ill, your first inclination is to crawl into bed and turn on the TV - thus transferring those nasty germs on your hands to the remote and then to the next person who handles it. Wipe your remote and your telephones with a sanitized napkin or towelette daily.
Q. I always love the Budweiser Clydesdale advertisements that air during the Super Bowl and at other times of the year. Where are the horses stabled?
A. I love those Budweiser ads, too. The "official" home of the Clydesdales is an ornate, brick-and-stained-glass stable built in 1885 on the company's 100-acre brewery complex in its hometown of St. Louis. But its main facility for the "gentle giants" is Warm Springs Ranch, a 300-acre parcel of lush rolling hills in Missouri that's about 150 miles farther to the west.
More than 100 Clydesdales make the state-of-the-art breeding facility their home. Between 30 and 40 foals are born there each year.
Q. We bought our first home last year and were anxious to get our refund that reflects all of our new real estate tax benefits. We filed our return Feb. 1 because we thought we had all the W-2 and 1099 forms that we needed, but I received a 1099 from a client who I had forgotten about a few days later. What should we do now?
A. You're going to have to claim that income that you had forgotten about by amending the return that you had filed a few days earlier. That means that you'll need to complete Internal Revenue Service Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.
You and your spouse can get a free copy of the form, plus written instructions to complete it, by calling the IRS at (800) 829-3676 or by downloading it from www.irs.gov.
Wait at least a few weeks before filing your 1040X so the IRS can first process your original return. Also note that a 1040X can't be e-filed, so you'll have to mail an old-fashioned paper copy instead.
Real estate trivia: The name of those magnificent Clydesdales horses comes from Scotland, where farmers along the Clyde River in the early 1800s began breeding them for their remarkable strength. Each one can pull more than a ton at a speed of five miles per hour.
• For the booklet "Straight Talk About Living Trusts," send $4 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to David Myers/Trust, P.O. Box 4405, Culver City, CA 90231-4405.
© 2015, Cowles Syndicate Inc.