what to do if you can't self-isolate at home?

[lifeisntgoodritenow]

Just that really, we have a 2 bed, 1 bathroom house and have to walk through sitting room to get to the kitchen so can't use it as an extra bedroom.
My dds share large front bedroom, dh and I have bedroom at back, there is no practical way for any of us to self-isolate on the house, we can't be the only ones in this situation so what would be the advice?

A lot of the advice assumes everyone has their own bedroom and more than one bathroom/toilet

The whole household has to be isolation together then, that’s all you can do.

Do what you can. Have separate towels. Keep toothbrushes in your own room. Wipe down surfaces and door handles every day.

If someone gets sick then they have own crockery and cutlery for food, washed separately, laundry kept sep and washed sep. Time bathroom use and ill person wipes down bathroom after use with dettol or bleach based cleaner. If they are too ill, another person does it but wears gloves.

If you or your partner get sick, the well one sleeps in the living room. Some distance is better than nothing. You might all catch it but at least it would be staggered.

Don't hug the sick person, don't sit chatting to them. For mosy people it will be a few grim days.

Obviously if your kids are young, this goes out of the window. Bit really we can all only do what we can.

It's real toff advice, some of it. I'm half expecting Jacob Rees-Mogg to suggest that one requisition one's butler's cottage on one's estate for seven days.

OP, you are effectively in group isolation, that's the best you can do; along with plenty of Dettol spray or similar if you can get it.

Public health advice has to be general, aimed at the whole of community. You can’t realistically expect it to be tailored for each individual circumstance, so you need to use your own sense and judgement.

In the circumstances you describe, I’d isolate the person of specific concern/patient in the smallest bedroom but I’d consider all other family members to need to practice self-isolation as in, remain indoors. And limit as far as humanly possible the contact between the family member of concern, and the others.

Some practical things you can do are arrange an agreed timing for use of the common facilities by the patient and rest of the family so the patient is never physically in a room at the same time as them. Put lots of cleaning supplies in each room. When the patient is due to use a common room, you prepare so the patient minimizes all possible touching of surfaces. So, eg patient needs to launder their bed clothes. Other parent wedges open all other doors on the route, including the washing machine door, and opens the windows all round as well. Then rest of family in the large bedroom with the door closed. Patient opens small bedroom door, carries laundry to machine, puts it directly in machine without it or patient touching any other surfaces. Patient closes washing machine door and wipes it down with a disposable cloth or wipe soaked in disinfectant that you have left out for this purpose. Patient puts wipe in bin (that you have left open). Patient returns to bedroom and closes door. Wait some time for air to circulate in kitchen. You come out, put in laundry detergent (or you do this in advance) and turn the machine on.

In this scenario, the only thing the patient has touched is the inside handle of own bedroom door and the washing machine door.

There’s loads of really specific advice on scenarios on Irish television - get the RTE player app and look at last week’s Late Late Show for example.

Best wishes.

You’d all isolate together as a family iyswim so the whole house is your isolation zone. If you’re living in close quarters and one of you gets ill the others have probably already been exposed to it through you tbh unless it’s somebody returning from abroad who can be hurried straight up to a spare room or something like that.

a spare room or something like that

Missing the point of the thread entirely....

As others have said, OP, you just do the best you can. Thinking it through before the event is extremely sensible.

I took it to mean the whole household isolate together! If one of you has caught it, chances are the whole household will be infected.

We're in this situation. I woke up this morning with a cough, sore throat and slight temperature. I'm self-employed and have had to contact my clients to say I won't be working this week.

We have a house where true self isolation is impossible. One bathroom (that you can't get to without going through the living room and kitchen). We do have a spare bed but we can't cut all contact with each other.

For now I'm staying home. DH works alone so will continue to go to work unless he develops symptoms, in which case he'll stay home too.

I'm a single parent to a 3 and 4 yr old. We're all isolating from today.

You isolate as a household.
We have a big enough house that we could technically self isolate (well me and baby together, DH separate) as we have enough bedrooms and bathrooms and 2 TV’s with Sky and Netflix. In reality if one does, we both will.

I was thinking this. In our house there is me, DH and toddler. Our 1 bathroom is downstairs. So if I were to isolate me and toddler frm husband, would have to go downstairs through living room to get to bathroom anyway,it's going to be impossible to seperate from each other.

Ermmm it’s kind of obvious isn’t it, I’m a lone parent to 4. No family and their dad is absent. We will all just have to isolate together. I can’t exactly isolate from them. You will all just have to do it.

If one of you has it the chances are you have all caught it so you all stay in. I've got my stuff ready to go to dp's at the slightest sign of illness as I'm not been stuck here with my kids and their boyfriends, it's like living in a student house most of the time as it is!

If one of you has it, it’s not inevitable that you all will. Follow the WHO guidance, and take all reasonable precautions.

www.who.int/publications-detail/home-care-for-patients-with-suspected-novel-coronavirus-(ncov)-infection-presenting-with-mild-symptoms-and-management-of-contacts

We suspect DS it so this is what we've been doing.

1. He's staying in his bedroom, only coming out to use the bathroom which is 3 steps away
2. Hand sanitiser by his door that he is using before he comes out and touches anything
3. His own towel/soap in the bathroom and toothbrush kept away from ours
4. Washing our hands and using sanitiser each time one of us comes out of his room
5. Using the same plate/bowl/cutlery that's been put to one side for him
6. Filling the kitchen sink with hot water before collecting his used cutlery/plates etc so that we can bring them straight downstairs and straight into hot soapy water
7. Wiping down the kitchen worktops with antibacterial spray and paper towels after clearing away his used plates etc
8. Wiping down door handles/taps/toilet seat etc with anti antibac after he's been in there as well as anywhere else he might have touched "en route" so to speak!