9 things in your home that are dirtier than your toilet seat

Despite regularly coming into contact with water and soap, your kitchen sink probably has more germs than your toilet. That’s because it also comes into frequent contact with food. There’s more than 500,000 bacteria per square inch in the drain alone.

Action plan: Scrub it with hot water and soap once or twice a week and always remove any food scraps.

Left wet and often with tiny food bits stuck to it, this nasty germ factory can be 200,000 times dirtier than your toilet.

Action plan: While there are multiple ways to clean a grimy sponge (dishwasher, microwave, etc.), the easiest way is to replace it regularly.

What do you do in between laundry loads? Read a book? Watch a movie? Take a nap? If you leave you clothes for longer than 30 minutes after the wash cycle, bad news — You should rewash the entire load. Often times the cold or tepid water used to wash your clothes isn’t hot enough to kill bacteria. Plus, we all know that bacteria flourish in wet areas making your laundry room a perfect hang out spot.

Action plan: Set a timer for the end of your wash cycle so you know when to take your clothes out and leave your washing machine lid open after to let it completely air dry. If you have a front loading machine, the rubber gasket tends to be a mould hotspot. Wipe it down often.

It may be hard to believe that the place you get clean in is, in fact, rather filthy. The germs that you’re washing off your body can multiply in the moist environment of your tub or shower. According to Today, tubs have over 100,000 bacteria per square inch. In a study by NSF, a nonprofit that develops public health standards, 28 per cent of bathtubs, compared to just 6 per cent of garbage cans, harboured the bacteria staphylococcus, which can cause problems like skin lesions and UTIs.

Action plan: Keep those germs away by disinfecting the shower once a week.

Your plush wall-to-wall carpeting is actually hiding wall-to-wall bacteria colonies. From E. coli to salmonella and staphylococcus, these bacteria feed on the 1.5 million skin cells you shed every hour, not to mention the food particles that fall onto it as well as pollen and pet dander. Your vacuum cleaner’s suction may clean the surface of your carpet but it often doesn’t reach the bottom of its fibres, which hides about 200,000 bacteria per square inch. That’s 4,000 times dirtier than your toilet seat.

Action plan: Steam clean your carpets every 1.5 years.

There’s more than stale coffee lurking in your coffee pot. A study by the National Science Foundation found that one in 10 coffee makers contained coliform bacteria (which, in continuous doses, can make humans sick). The coffee maker’s water reservoirs were also found to contain more germs per inch than bathroom door handles and toilet seats.

Action plan: Remove wet coffee grounds after each use and rinse the filter basket to reduce the chances of mould. Wash the carafe, lid and filter basket. Once a month, de-calcify your coffee machine with one part vinegar and one part water.

Whenever you fiush your toilet, it sprays the room with a fine mist that reaches as far and as high as 20 feet. If your toothbrush or toothbrush holder is exposed, it’s easily contaminated – and this applies to anything else within its radius, too, like towels and makeup). According to the NSF, toothbrush holders often contain traces of fecal matter. Bamboo or wooden toothbrushes were also worse offenders than ceramic, stainless steel or plastic ones, as they are harder to disinfect.

Action plan: For the love of God, close the toilet lid before flushing and place your toothbrush holder in the dishwasher once or twice a week.

According to Dr. Charles Gerba, “In most cases, it’s safer to make a salad on a toilet seat than it is to make one on a cutting board.” Yuck. According to him, a chopping board has 200 times more bacteria from raw meat than a toilet seat.

Action plan: Have separate chopping boards, one for meat and one for vegetables, to avoid cross contamination – and clean them with a kitchen disinfectant.

This is one of the areas of the home that’s handled daily by multiple people, so it’s no wonder that it’s contaminated with bacteria. In fact, there’s almost five times as much bacteria on a refrigerator handle than a toilet seat.

Action plan: Wipe it down with an antibacterial wipe daily.