Kitchen. The kitchen is one of the busiest rooms in most homes and also the dirtiest. All of the elements that encourage bacteria to grow–heat, moisture, and food–are readily available.
What is the cleanest part of your house? Surprisingly, the cleanest part of your house is likely to be your toilet pan. While the bathroom is wrongly thought to be a hothouse of bacteria in your home, the toilet has been proven time and time again to carry fewer bacteria than certain areas of your kitchen.
After the sponge, the kitchen sink is the second most germ-laden place in your house (even worse than the toilet).
1. Kitchen sponge. If you didn't know it already, the single germiest item in your home is your average kitchen sponge. The NSF found that more than 75% of sponges and kitchen rags they tested had coliform bacteria on them.
Think the toilet is the dirtiest spot in the house? You'd be wrong. "There's more fecal bacteria in your kitchen sink than there is in a toilet after you flush it," said microbiologist Charles Gerba, known as "Dr. Germ."
You probably assume that areas like your counters, the sink, or your cutting board are most likely to harbor bacteria. Much to everyone's surprise, though, the highest amount of cross-contamination was found in an unlikely spot: your spice jars.
Research shows that about 200,000 bacteria live in each square inch of carpet (nearly 700 times more than on your toilet seat), including E. coli, staphylococcus, and salmonella.
It may be surprising but our mattress harbors billions of bacteria, which makes it dirtier than your toilet seat according to recent testing. The reason is simple, we wash our toilet frequently but never clean or maintain our mattress despite the fact that we spend half our lives on it.
Handles, Switches, and Buttons
The faucet handles, doorknobs, light switches, and elevator buttons in public spaces could also be harbouring more germs than your toilet seats.
In the kitchen, your trusty sink sponge is health enemy number one. In fact, that sponge is likely the dirtiest item in your home, Gerba says. “It's probably home to hundreds of millions of bacteria,” he says. NSF agrees.
If ready-to-use disinfectants are not available, you can use bleach solutions for many hard surfaces. Bleach solutions will be effective against bacteria, viruses, and fungi when properly diluted. Learn more about cleaning and disinfecting surfaces using bleach solutions.
It's not a secret that the dirtiest and most difficult place to clean is a toilet. There will always be many harmful microorganisms in the bathroom and toilet, even if you wash them systematically. Therefore, the health and hygiene of the family will be heavily dependant on how often you clean this room.
Often touched areas and bathrooms need to be cleaned weekly, and your plants, showers, floors, and fridge need to be cleaned every few weeks. Your oven, windows, ceiling fans, baseboards, pantries, and closets need to be cleaned a few times a year. Light fixtures and curtains only need to cleaned once a year.
“The most important areas to clean frequently are kitchens and bathrooms, where germs tend to accumulate due to the frequent use, but also because of what we tend to do in these areas, such as prepare and eat food, brush our teeth, wash our faces, and more.”
How Often You Should Wash Your Sheets (And How to Get Them Really Clean) Experts recommend washing or changing sheets once a week.
The results found a higher bacteria count on the bedding than on many of the grimiest places in your home. “Pillowcases washed a week ago have over 17,000 times the number of bacteria as a toilet seat!” the results shouted.
It's not just the bathroom doorknob that's dirtier than a toilet, it's all the doorknobs, handles, light switches, and electronic keypads around your home that are probably teeming with bacteria or virus-laden. A quick wipe down with a disinfectant wipe will take care of the problem.
Pathogens are not transmitted via skin contact
Even if many public restrooms do not look inviting - sitting on toilet seats cannot transfer germs if the skin is intact. Admittedly, sanitary conditions are not inviting in many public restrooms.
A home's kitchen sink carries more bacteria than both the toilet and the garbage can, Gerba's research found. "There's more fecal bacteria in a sink than there is in a flushed toilet," Gerba told "Today." "That's why dogs drink out of the toilet.
Did You Know That Typical Carpets Are 4000 Times Dirtier Than Toilet Seats? It's not something we like to admit but most carpets are dirtier than we think. Here are just a few scary facts: Your carpet is the biggest air filter in your home.
To no one's surprise, the #1 hardest to clean appliance is the oven. Boy, it does a lot of work. Having an oven is amazing. It cooks and bakes a lot of things.
Surprisingly, your toilet pan is one of the cleanest surfaces in your home, whereas other, far less expected places turn out to be the perfect habitat for thriving colonies of bacteria. There's your bin, your dish cloth, and your chopping board – your kitchen surfaces can be a well-spring of germs.