While we are adamant about washing our hands and sanitizing ourselves after using the toilet, many of us don’t realize that there are plenty of things around the house that harbor just as many germs and bacteria.
Take a look at these a few things you touch all the time are even germier than your toilet seat. After reading this, you’re going to want to take a shower.
1. Your Cellphone
Even if you never take your cellphone into the bathroom for a little toilet time scrolling, it is still covered with the bacteria from everything else you touch and every surface it touches.
Cleaning is very simple with the right supplies: a bit of rubbing alcohol, distilled water, and a microfiber lint-free cloth. While you’re cleaning, don’t forget to clean your earbuds and other accessories.
2. Keyboards and Remote Controls
How many times each day do you touch your laptop keyboard or the remote controls for the television, game systems, or even ceiling fans? Just like your phone, they harbor the germs from every hand that’s touched it.
Cleaning is easy if you use a disinfectant wipe made for electronics. This should be done at least daily and more often if someone in the household has a virus or infection.
3. Bathroom Doorknobs
Does everyone in your house wash their hands faithfully each time they use the bathroom, sneeze, or prepare food? Probably not.
It’s not just the bathroom doorknob that teems with bacteria or is virus-laden, it’s all the doorknobs, handles, light switches, and electronic keypads around the house. A quick wipe down with a disinfectant wipe will take care of the problem. Be sure to use one wipe per room. One wipe won’t disinfect an entire house full of knobs!
4. Cutting Board
Food-borne bacteria in the kitchen are the cause of many of the most common illnesses in a household. Cross-contamination from raw foods, mishandled food, unwashed produce, and improper food temperatures are all breeding grounds for bacteria.
Cutting boards, especially wooden ones, are some of the worst offenders because bacteria can become embedded in the tiny cuts and nicks on the surface. Cutting boards should be washed in hot, soapy water after every use and there should be separate boards for meats and vegetables.
5. Kitchen Sponges
When you catch a whiff of a foul-smelling sponge, what you’re smelling is the odor from coliform bacteria (Salmonella or E.coli) lurking in the sponge pores. And when you use that sponge to wipe down countertops, you are spreading a fine layer of that bacteria all over the surfaces.
Zapping the sponge in the microwave for a few minutes just won’t do the trick. The sponges must be cleaned with a heavy-duty disinfectant in boiling water to really clean them. It’s best to simply replace them every few weeks.
6. Reusable Grocery Bags
Reusable grocery bags are great for the environment but they can pose a hazard to your family’s health. Each time you load in groceries, the bacteria from a leaking meat package, unwashed produce, and other dirty packages go in the bags as well.
When you get home, the bags are emptied and then often stashed in the trunk of a hot car until the next shopping trip. The heat encourages the growth of any bacteria that remain in the bags.
It is important to wash the bags used for meats, vegetables, and raw foods after every use. It’s a good idea to designate one bag for any chemical cleaning products to prevent accidental cross-contamination.
7. Pet Toys and Food Bowls
Our pets are part of the family and we want them to remain as healthy as possible. Most of us wash our dishes after each use to prevent bacteria from growing on the utensils and making us sick. Do you do the same for your pet?
Pet bowls are filled with bacteria from the animal’s mouth and the leftover food and multiply after every use. Bowls should be washed after every meal with hot water and soap. The same treatment should frequently be done to pet toys.
8. Purses or Backpacks
Purses and backpacks often end up on the floor of stores, offices, classrooms, and bathrooms. Now imagine what else has touched that floor. The handles harbor the bacteria from everything your hands have touched throughout the day.
When we toss a handbag or backpack on the kitchen counter or table, all those germs and bacteria come along. If the purse or backpack can be washed, do it often or use a disinfectant wipe to clean the bags often and keep them away from food preparation and eating areas.
9. Money
Bills and coins make the world go round, but they also spread germs like woah. According to research from New York University, each dollar bills carries about 3,000 types of bacteria on its surface. There’s no cleaner to solve this problem, so here’s to going digital!
10. Your carpet
Soft, cozy, and … filled with germs? Your carpet has a whopping 4,000 times more bacteria content than your toilet seat. This is just another reason why you should vacuum this surface along with your rugs once every week.
11. Your desk
And not just by a little — it’s 100 times dirtier than the average toilet seat. But that totally makes sense if you, like many, forget to give this surface a swift cleaning until it starts to feel sticky. To avoid these germs, use a disinfectant wipe to rub down dirty surfaces once a week.
12. Fast food ice
Of course, not every restaurant is the same. But according to research from the Daily Mail, six out of 10 of the places they tested had ice with higher levels of bacteria than water from a toilet. Maybe skip ice the next time you grab a soda to go.