Dish Sponge It's the dirtiest thing in your house. By a long shot. That makes sense: It's wet, absorbent, and you rub food and dirt with it all the time. Sponges are hard to keep clean, try as you might.
Kitchen Sponge
Wrong. According to germ expert Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, the kitchen sponge is actually the dirtiest item in your home. Here's why: While you clean various surfaces and dishes with your sponge, the porous surface collects food particles.
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. Its researchers found that 75% of home dish sponges and rags contained Coliform.
Dishcloths and sponges are dirtier than any other item in the average home, harboring the largest amount of E. coli and other fecal bacteria—mostly because they aren't replaced as often as they should be. Each square inch of these items contains 456 times more bacteria than a toilet seat.
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.
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.
The dish sponge is not only the filthiest item in your kitchen—it's the nastiest, grossest, most germ-infested thing in your entire home. A recent study found your average kitchen sponge contains roughly 10 million bacteria per square inch, making it 200,000 times dirtier than your toilet seat.
The main types of germs are bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites.
A new study that described reusable water bottles as "portable Petri dishes" revealed they can harbor 40,000 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat.
Disinfectants kill only select strains of germs. No disinfectant is capable of killing all germs found on a hard surface. The absence of all germs is referred to as sterilization and is a process that surpasses the efficacy level achieved with any disinfectant solution.
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.
Pillows carry many germs or human respiratory pathogens. Respiratory pathogens are not only present on the cover but can seep through fabrics and seams and into the filling material. Common pathogens found on sleeping surfaces include bacteria, fungi, and adenoviruses.
Keep your hands off your belly button
Did you know that your belly button is the dirtiest part of the body, according to the Public Library of Science? “The belly button harbors a high population of bacteria,” Dr. Richardson says.
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.
Slowly add 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of bleach to 2 cups (500 ml) of water. To be used on surfaces contaminated with feces, vomit, urine or blood. Slowly add ½ cup (125 ml) of bleach to 4 ½ cups (1125 ml) of water. (e.g., environmental cleaning, body fluids, etc.).
The majority of the pathogens in wastewater come from the feces. Urine is mostly sterile but feces contain over 100 varieties of bacteria and viruses. Even though some of the bacteria are harmless, others can cause diseases like dysentery, cholera, typhoid, and Hepatitis A.
How often you need to wash your bras isn't an exact science. But dermatologist Alok Vij, MD, says that as a general rule, you should wash them after every two to three wears.
Cleaning can help extend the useful lifespan of your mattress and bedding, while improving sleep quality and your health. With that said, it's still important to replace your mattress every 6-8 years or so, to ensure you're getting the best sleep possible.
Dead skin cells, bacteria, and even sweat can accumulate quickly on your towels, so using a fresh one about every three days is a simple rule of thumb—for all kinds of towels. You can of course change them more often.
Using household cleaners that contain soap or detergent will remove germs and dirt on surfaces and reduces risk of infection from surfaces in your home. Cleaning alone removes most harmful viruses or bacteria from surfaces.