We don’t have enough sanitizer to deal with all the items that come in from the outside world. It is no longer available for sale anywhere. So, we are exploring ways to reduce the amount of sanitizer needed, to make what little we do have last longer.
Paper items, the mail, are particularly demanding, they have relatively large surfaces to be covered on two sides. Also paper gets soggy when sprayed with liquid sanitizers.
We know the the virus will not live forever on surfaces. It lives longer at cooler temperatures, and at room temperature about 3 to 4 days. So I proposed a system of a series of containers for our mail. And this is what Attila came up with as a result. He built us a Mail-On-Hold-Box, out of cardboard and packing tape. It will sit in the locked garage, the daily mail will go into a designated slot, and stay there for 7 days, not touching anything else, then it will be removed and brought indoors when the next week’s mail deliveries begin, to be replaced by the new weekday mail. This will give all mail items 7 days of self-isolation, before they are brought into the “safe zone”. I am mulling over the fact that the virus lives longer at cold temperatures, thinking about how cold it is in the garage, above freezing but not warm. I haven’t decided if I will trust 7 days at that temperature!
I like this invention particularly since no purchases were required, very little plastic was used, and most of it is recyclable here on the property as compost or mulch.
Worldly
Weather
3°C
Date: 1:00 PM EDT Tuesday 24 March 2020
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.4 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 3.3°C
Dew point: 1.3°C
Humidity: 87%
Wind: S 12 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“Necessity, who is the mother of invention.”
Plato
427 BC – 347 BC
