EP020: Ways You Can Stay Safe at the Grocery Store

DISCLAIMER: Although these won’t create a completely sterile environment, these are great tips we compiled to help you understand the best, safest way to use Personal Protective Equipment for beginners. Please follow at your own discretion.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 15:31 — 14.3MB)

Jessica: Hi, friends! Shayna and Jess here. We were discussing last week that we've seen a lot of posts on Facebook from the CDC and from our state's health organization to say wear PPE but do it correctly and it doesn't say what PPE is and it also doesn't say how to do it correctly so PPE for anyone who doesn't know is Personal Protective Equipment and that would be your gloves and or any face covering that you have, whether it is medical grade or just a scarf that you're covering yourself that would be makeshift PPE. And then how to do it correctly is you know, we have our blood borne pathogens training and we went through all the steps, and we watched all the videos so we're like, okay, I think we've got this so obviously there is so many steps that go into preparing for an actual procedure versus going to the grocery store and there are certain precautions that you may not have the equipment to take, or you might not have the time to do and you may honestly forget, because there is a lot and if you're new to it, you might not remember at all. So we've tried to simplify this into as many steps to really get the job done and keep you safe and keep your loved one safe and keep everyone in our world safe but also not make it too complex or too hard to do so, here are some ways that we have found to make it just a little bit safer. It's obviously not going to be completely sterile because the field you're going into aren't sterile fields and there's a lot of chances for cross-contamination but I think if you follow all these steps, you're going to be a lot better off. So to start off, we were talking about correct glove wear and Shayna here has a box of gloves because she is a piercer so she has all the gloves and she's going to show us the correct way to put them on and the correct way to take them off.

Shayna begins the PPE walkthrough with a tutorial on how to safely put on your gloves

Shayna: So first thing you want to do is, so you're gonna want to sanitize your hands first, so I'll do that bird dance I was talking to you about. Make sure your hands are dry before you try to put gloves on otherwise, you're just gonna look funny. [inaudible 2:16] a bunch of gloves. So here's my glove box. I'm gonna want to go in and grab a glove from the inside not touching the outside of the glove I plan on putting on my hand and I'm going to put that on my hand without touching the outside of the glove. Don't worry about adjusting your gloves until you have both of them on and then you fidget with them until they feel good and snug. Grab another glove, put it on again, not touching the outside of the glove with your bare hands and then you can go ahead and adjust. I am ready for groceries. To take them off, you just want to pinch the outside of the glove and pull. Take it off, scrunch this glove up on the other hand, slip your fingers under the cuff of the other glove and pull up and you've created a little pouch for your dirty gloves.

Jessica: Perfect! And then after that, hand sanitize those puppies again.

Shayna: It's like ketchup sounds. Awful.

Jessica explains what you need to do first before going to the grocery store

Jessica: Perfect! And then so really before you do all of that though, you have to get in your car and you have to get to the grocery store. I wouldn't worry about personally, when I go to the grocery store, I don't worry about wearing gloves or mask in my car because I'm not coming into contact with anyone new and I'm also wiping down any surfaces that I've touched after a trip out into the public so there really is coming into a clean area already or at least as clean as my home is so I'm only coming in contact with my own germs at that point. And then I get to the grocery store, and I open my car door but first before I do any of that, I make sure that I left my purse in my car under the seat where no one can see it and I have taken out my debit or credit card. The exact cash if I've decided to use cash for my budget for the day because a lot of us are on budgets because of unemployment and my ID if I've decided to drink my woes away so then I put all that in my pocket along with my handy-dandy hand sanitizer, and a couple sets of gloves in case I need them and I'm ready to go into the store. I put my gloves on as soon as I get into the store, and then why don't you go ahead and take away the next part.

Shayna: So once you're in the store, most stores have those little Sani Wipe Stations at the front when you first get in, you can grab one of those wipes, wipe down your shopping cart and at that point would be a good time to take off your gloves and put a new fresh set on, you've cleaned your cart with your dirty gloves and so instead of retouching your cart with that same set of gloves, just put a new pair on fresh pair, you're good to go. Go into the store, keep in mind not to be grabbing things that you don't intend to buy so try to touch as few things as possible while you're on your trip there so just grab what you need if you need to look at a label, try to do it without touching it. So once you have all your things, then you can proceed up to the cash register. As far as your card or your cash or whatever you're using to pay - that's in your pocket, you're going to be cleaning your clothes once you get home anyway, you're supposed to be putting a fresh pair of fresh set of clothes on and then also taking a shower once you are done at the grocery store so just grab your card or your cash out of your pocket. Hey, put it back in your pocket or if it's a card, you can just put it in your grocery bags because you're going to wipe it down once you get home anyways. Put all your groceries back in your cart and then proceed outside.

Jessica: Perfect. And then once you get to your car, you're going to go ahead and switch your gloves again because now you're going to be coming in contact with some new things so you switch your gloves, throw away any gloves that you've taken off, and you're going to open all the car doors. Any door that--- so your driver side if it's just you and your truck, and then you're going to take your grocery bags, complete with the groceries and any dirty items that need to be wiped down so that includes a cell phone if you happen to use your cell phone put that in the dirty bag. What I've been doing is I've actually been creating a shopping list before I leave for the grocery store. I am really as soon as I've decided that I might go that day, I create the list and I put it in my pocket so I'm all ready for it. That way you can dispose my list afterwards with my gloves but if you have forgotten your list like I have countless times, put your phone, your credit card, any money that you've used in the dirty bag. Close your trunk, take your gloves off, get in your car and close the door from the inside so now you're back inside in a clean environment, and you're ready to go. If you have to, you know you can, there are obviously, you know, you might get to this point you're like, there's a couple of steps that I don't want to do like, I don't want to ride around with my dirty gloves in my car. I don't want to leave my car door open, and go throw it away so you can bring maybe a Ziploc bag and have it in the car with you and slip your dirty gloves in there, close up the ziplock bag, toss it in the trunk if it's easy access, just keep it next to you if you don't have easy access to a trash can, but that way your car inside stays as clean as it possibly can and you're once again, just in contact with your own germs. So now, you're home, it's time to go inside so you want to done fresh gloves, you want to get out of your car, you want to grab your groceries and then close all respective doors and go inside. So before I leave my house, what I do is I live alone, so I open all of my cupboards that I put food into before I leave so everything's ready. If you live with somebody else, maybe have them open the cupboards for you when you arrive. That way you don't have to worry about touching anything, but that's eliminated any chances of significant cross-contamination once I get inside and then once I'm in my house, I switched my gloves again, because I don't really want to bring anything more from outside-inside than I have to so I've switched my gloves again, and it's time to remove everything from the grocery bags. Now, my sink is in the middle of the counter so I have this little square of like dirty counter space in the sink and then all this area of clean counter space and so what I do is I remove everything from the bags and I put it on the dirty counter and then I go ahead and I take those bags and I put them outside. The CDC has more information or your local government might have more information on particular materials. I know that I don't want to use any more harsh chemicals than I want to, that's my own personal choice, you may have a different opinion so I just keep everything outside until the virus---if the virus is on my bag has died. One thing that we've learned just working in the piercing industry, is if you're going to come in contact with blood is just to work as if that blood is dirty so that way, you've eliminated any chance of contracting anything from somebody else and so we're just taking that same principle into grocery shopping.

Shayna: Yeah!

Jessica goes over cleaning and sanitizing materials

Jessica: Just imagine that someone has coughed on your apples and you're just going to act that way. And so once you get it out of that bag, and it's time to wash it, there are a couple of different sterilization methods. I'm not going to go into the details of what those are because I want to leave that up to the CDC and your local government. Just be sure that you're using appropriate materials the way that you're going to consume it so don't use any toxic chemicals on say, fruits or vegetables that you would use on a box that might have a package inside the box because you don't really want to eat Lysol or eat bleach, it doesn't sound like a good time. That's a whole new problem so avoid that and then, oh, what were you going to say?

Shayna provides some safe, package free storage techniques

Shayna: With that, if you are bringing in groceries that might be like a box inside of a box or like a bag inside of a box. Something you can do while you're wiping your groceries down is like I was telling you about the cereal box earlier, open your cereal box and then without touching the inside of the box, dump the contents of that onto your clean side and then you don't even have to worry about it.

Jessica: Oh, yeah, that's a very good point. Yeah. It's important to know that the germs aren't seeping through the container so as long as you touch the outside and you don't touch the inside, and you haven't touched the opening, there's really no reason to worry about that and that's a great way to then be able to dispose of any recyclables because there [inaudible 11:39] love to recycle outside with all of your dirty bags from the grocery stores. Now, your recycling can go sit outside as well and it's clean after a certain amount of time. The virus has died and you're all good to go there.

Shayna: Yeah.

Jessica and Shayna go over hand washing techniques, and how to decontaminate your household after a trip outside

Jessica: Yeah. And then now, you have everything on the clean side, but your hands are dirty so you're gonna want to wash your hands, and Ellen has a great video on handwashing so you're going to want to go ahead and follow that. If you have nails like me, a really good idea is to have a dedicated nail brush and that's what I have. You can get toothbrushes at the grocery store for like under $1 and I have one for jewelry and I have one for my fingernails and I make sure to scrub underneath my nails especially if I've been outside because a lot of gunk can live under your nails and under dirty nails so I clean that and then I also sterilize my brush afterwards. I'm using cleaning chemicals, I dip it in some cleaning chemicals and it's all good to go for the next time. But once your hands are all clean, and you haven't touched any of the cupboards and you haven't touched anything else so those guys are good is only half has come in contact with you and your loved one’s germs so go ahead and put everything away and now it's time for the really fun part is wiping down everything that you've touched so you may remember that on that dirty side, you have possibly a cell phone, probably a cell phone. You have your car keys, you have -

Shayna: Your cards, probably.

Jessica: Yeah, your card, any cash that you might have left over, your receipt if you keep your receipts, you're going to want to go ahead and clean those according to the material that it is with the supply that you have. You're also going to want to go outside to your car and you're going to want to wipe down the trunk area, you're going to want to wipe down your steering wheel, anywhere that came in contact like we talked about having a Ziploc bag with dirty gloves in it. Anything that came in contact with that Ziploc bag, seat belt handle, anything like that, anything that you've touched in your car, you're going to want to wipe down. Same with anything in your house, so doorknobs light bulbs, the sink itself, I think that's something a lot of people forget about is the sink handle and also the soap dispenser.

Shayna: Yeah.

Jessica: Wipe down the soap dispenser too and the sink and the dirty side and once you wiped down everything and you've cleaned everything, it is time to remove your clothes and it is time to take a shower and I believe everyone knows how to do those things.

Shayna: Just make a spoof video on how to take a shower.

Jessica: Right? Do I use ketchup in my hair?

Shayna: Just get in the shower like with long sleeves and everything like [inaudible 14:37]

Jessica: This is how I wash my groceries.

Shayna: Like climbing into a clothes washer like -

Jessica and Shayna wrap up the tutorial with some last bits of advice

Jessica: Perfect! Alright, so I think that will give you guys all a great start. If you have any questions, you can always reach out to us at Avanti. I know that not everyone has gloves and some of you guys might be like, what do I do with handwashing? So if you have questions about specific scenarios, let us know. I will brainstorm some techniques specifically helpful to you and if enough people have the same question, we'll release another video just walking everyone through it. But yeah, stay healthy, stay clean, wash your hands, throw away your gloves.

Shayna: Yes, not on the ground.

Jessica: Not on the ground, in the trashcan. Alright everyone, stay healthy!