Kitchens & Laundry Rooms, Designed with Sanitizing in Mind

K&B wants to help support our community in doing their best in keeping family members safe.

The coronavirus pandemic has placed a premium on disinfecting and cleaning. As The Center for Disease Control continues to update guidelines for cleaning and sanitizing your home, we would like to highlight a few remodeling innovations that contribute to the health and well-being of you and your loved ones.

Did you know that many dishwashers, washing machines, and dryers today include sanitizing cycles? Appliances with sanitization cycles meeting National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) standards are tested to ensure that they can eliminate potentially harmful allergens, some microorganisms, and bacteria. The ability to kill germs on clothes, cutlery, dishes, and glassware depends on water temperature. Dishwashers that meet NSF standards have rinse water temperatures of at least 150 degrees. The water temperature of washing machines that meet NSF standards must reach a minimum of 131 degrees. Concerning clothes dryers, the heat from a normal cycle is not sufficient to sanitize laundry. However, the sanitizing cycle increases dryer temperature to kill germs or bacteria lingering on your laundry.

A best practice for protecting your family is to rinse and load dirty dishes into your dishwasher immediately. Leaving dirty dishes in a sink, countertop, or elsewhere creates a ripe environment for the growth of E. coli, salmonella, and listeria, and those harmful bacteria increase the longer dishes sit in an open-air environment. If dishes sit long enough, it may be difficult for a regular dishwasher to disinfect them.

There’s more incentive to be vigilant today. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, most appliance experts recommended sanitizing cycles on appliances as a useful tool to help allergy sufferers. Why take the risk if you have appliances with sanitization cycles?

Other appliances that can help you keep your home safer include air purifiers, HEPA vacuum cleaners, and steam convection ovens. These appliances are all designed to eliminate bacteria and sanitize hard-to-clean items.

Are you ready to make some updates in your home that include a new washer, dryer, dishwasher, or oven? Would you like to know which appliances have NSF compliant sanitation cycles, giving us a call at 440-543-8050, send us a message through on contact form, or send an email to arrange a conversation with one of our talented designers! We are here to keep you and your loved ones comfortable and safe in every way possible.