I am sorting through my various supply cupboards because we are getting ready to move and it's interesting to see what got used up and what didn't. I bought a giant thing of lysol spray at the very beginning - it's not something I usually use, and most of that can is left. When I disinfect, I mostly use bleach and water and a rag. Similarly, we bought Clorox Wipes to keep in the car, and have most of them left because we mostly didn't go anywhere.
I happened to buy my first can of aerosol Lysol in February 2020. My husband came down with the flu right before we were headed out of state for a bicycle race, and I didn't want anyone to get sick so I bought the Lysol and also a container of disinfecting wipes. The Lysol is still more than half full because in the end I've used it to spray the inside of the garbage can now and then.
(He quickly wondered if he'd had Covid, but I highly doubt it because he was 100% better within 24 hours of taking Tamiflu.)
Having now gone through the pandemic (or I guess still going through it), I'm in the bleach and water camp for disinfecting things at home. I use disinfecting wipes on cart handles because I've done that for at least a decade -- here in CA we already had free disinfecting wipes available near the carts Costco, Target, and the major grocery stores. We stopped wiping packages and groceries sometime last summer.
I'm certain some of my behavior has changed permanently. I usually carried hand sanitizer but rarely used it, and going forward I will use it every time. Not because Covid is easily transferred by contact with surfaces
because it isn't, but because so many other germs are. I started carrying a small baggy of homemade wipes (70% alcohol on disposable dry wipes). I intend to wear a mask in public whenever I have symptoms of illness.
As for the pandemic hoarding, we're on our second container of disinfecting wipes (most were used in the first month or two). All in all I had the container I bought in February and one more container I was able to buy in June. I never needed the wipes I grabbed from my dad's house when he moved, which were all older and already opened. I knew they wouldn't be 100% as strong as new wipes but figured they might be better than nothing. We've used the first 6 bottles of hand sanitizer I ordered, but not the rest, including two full gallons. Dates are good on everything, but I'm going to take the gallons to my sons' workplace since there's no way we'll go through it before it loses potency. Oh, we've gone through more liquid hand soap this year than ever before, which is a major plus. I still have one refill bottle, but everything else is gone.
I guess my plan from here on out is as simple as disinfect with bleach and water when necessary, wear a mask in public if I have symptoms of illness, wipe down shopping carts, use hand sanitizer after being inside stores, restaurants, the library, etc., and wash my hands with soap and water every time I come home.
