These Are the Dirtiest Places You Will Find in Your Home

It turns out that no matter how clean you are, and how much time you dedicate to cleaning your home, it is the most unexpected places that are the dirtiest. We interact with so many home items on a daily basis, and even though they might seem clean on the outside, they’re actually constantly collecting grime. The long list of items includes things such as the fridge’s doorknob, the kitchen sponge and even your personal purse. Here’s a list of the dirtiest places and items scattered around your home, that you would have never thought of.

The Coffee Machine

That daily morning coffee is what keeps many of us going. That is why so many households invest in a good coffee machine, be it a fancy one or just some delicious filter coffee. Either way, it brings joy and energy to take on a new day.

Unfortunately, though, it might also be one of the dirtiest items in the home, as it is prone to tons of microbes. The reason for this is that the water reservoir basically incubates thousands of germs that move in there and stay for a very long time. Many people don’t remember to do this, but in order to keep it clean, it needs to be removed once a month for a hot and soapy wash.

The Fridge Handle

It is a bit concerning that once of the things we touch the most in our home is one of the dirtiest places in the house. Especially something that is so strongly associated with the food we eat every day.

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But apparently, tons of germs can live and thrive on the fridge’s handles for two days or more. That means that we touch them, and then touch the food we eat. So in order to avoid this, it is best to clean the refrigerator’s handle every now and then with a damp cloth mixed with a bit of dishwashing soap.

Wooden Cutting Boards

For those who love cooking, or those who cook almost on a daily basis, the cutting board is one of the most important items in the kitchen. It is there where we cut our vegetables, fruits and anything that needs to be cut.

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For that reason, it is particularly important to clean it and wash it well every time we use it. While most of us wash it with water and dishwashing soap, or just put it in the dishwasher machine, in order to really clean it, cutting boards should be washed with vinegar so that they’re completely disinfected. Additionally, scrubbing it with baking soda and a lot of salt cleans it even better.

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The Garbage Disposal

If not cleaned regularly, the garbage disposal can be pretty dirty and smelly. In fact, it is very common that garbage disposals develop bad odor when left without being cleaned for a while. The good thing is that it is a very easy place to clean.

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The best and most affordable way of cleaning it is by pouring about half a cup of baking soda followed by some vinegar down the drain. After a couple of minutes, pour hot water down the drain and finish off with some ground lemon for that fresh smell, and the job is done.

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Faucet

Sink faucets tend to hold a build-up of dirt and grime and are really prone to holding microbes with a potential of having negative consequences on your sync. This includes stains and unwanted odors.

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In order to clean it properly, especially the faucet aerator, it is important to remove the little screen at the bottom of the sink faucet and soak it in white vinegar. If this is done properly every other month, you should be able to get rid of all germy build-up.

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Can Opener

While we might think that washing the blade of our can openers is not necessary every time we use it, we’re wrong. The blade in every can opener holds an incredible amount of germs and bacteria, including yeast, salmonella and other molds.

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The worst thing is that we reuse it countless times, allowing it to touch our food! But cleaning it properly with an antibacterial soap every time we use it should have good cleaning results.

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Oven Knobs

Oven knobs are those things that we just don’t think about when we clean our kitchens. They’re just there, usually shiny and harmless. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. We touch oven knobs frequently, especially if cooking and baking is a part of our routine.

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It is very important to take them out every once in a while and to clean it with some water and vinegar. Leaving it soaking for a couple of minutes on vinegar should take care of any annoying stains.

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The Staircase Railing

Stair railings or any other railings (in the subway, escalators, buses, etc), are infected with bacteria and dirt. In fact, these are the easiest places to catch viruses and diseases. The home is no exception.

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The Staircase Railing

Many hands and fingers touch the stair railing every day, including those who live in the house and visitors. So it’s crucial to disinfect it regularly and clean it even more often if any family member is sick. If there are guests sleeping over, it is probably a good idea to clean it too, as the more people there are the more germs it will accumulate.

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The Bedroom Mattress

In addition to changing bed sheets, duvet covers and pillow covers, it turns out that the mattress can also get pretty gross. Mattresses have tons of dead skin cells gathered and little dust mites that happily eat our dead skin cells.

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Yep, it’s pretty disgusting. Not to mention the amount of sweat, coffee stains, food crumbs, and a number of other things that are not the cleanest. That’s why it would be a fairly good idea to clean your mattresses every three to six months, to vacuum it and put in exposed to the sun since UV rays kills bacteria.

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The EveryDay Toothbrush

The toothbrush could be another obvious one. How many times have we heard the advice that changing our toothbrushes every three months is very important? That’s because just pouring water on it after brushing our teeth doesn’t really clean the growing bacteria that accumulates inside the toothbrush.

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In addition to changing it every three months, one could clean it on the dishwasher, as the soap and hot water make a huge difference in comparison to just water.

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Shower Curtain

Mold accumulates on our shower curtains at a pace that we simply cannot keep up with. Surprisingly, many people fail to change or wash their shower curtains for month after month. Sometimes, they even last a year without being cleaned or washed.

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But the truth is that it’s fairly easy to clean it. The old mix of water and vinegar works just fine. After pouring the mix into a spray bottle, spray it all over the curtains and put the curtains in the washing machine. This should be done every three months.

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The Sink Area In Your Kitchen

If there is one place in the kitchen that interacts with a bunch of bacteria in the sink. The kitchen sink is where we place tons of dirty items, including plates, cutlery, and even raw food such as meat and fish.

Needless to say that even though we regularly wash items in there, the bacteria stays. So the best way to clean it would be to scrub it on a regular basis with baking soda and then soak it with white vinegar. That should do a good sanitizing job but has to be done regularly so that it actually makes a difference.

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The Bathroom Walls

This is a hard one, so brace yourselves. When we flush the toilet with the lid open, any nearby surfaces are at risk of being contaminated. Now, imagine how many times a day we flush, so how many possible opportunities of having the bathroom walls contaminated are there?

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Whenever you take some time to clean the bathroom and the toilet, make sure to give some time to the walls. Any all-purpose spray should work well and get rid of the bacteria accumulation problem.

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The Laptop or Comuter’s Keyboard

Here’s the thing, research advises against eating while working on our computers for so many reasons. Health-wise, it is so much better to focus our energy on our meals and on fueling our bodies.

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But also, food crumbs, oil, and other things easily stick to our keyboards. We then touch our faces, bite our nails, and the nasty cycle just keeps going on and on. So it’s probably a good idea to clean our keyboards every now and then. In order to do so, we should unplug it, and wipe either a mixed alcohol liquid or just a damp cloth with water all over it.

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Any Light Switch

Light switches are also one of those things that everyone gets to touch over and over again. It is simply inevitable. So they have been promoted to one of the dirtiest items in the home, with tons of germs, viruses, and bacteria.

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But the good thing about so many of these items is that they can be easily cleaned. Any all-purpose cleaner or water and vinegar mixture works perfectly. The switch and faceplate should be gently cleaned and wiped every time we clean the rest of the house.

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Walls

We so often neglect the walls of our houses when we spend a whole day cleaning everything else. We clean the floor, the couch, the tables, chairs, the balcony, everything. But even though walls easily accumulate mold and dust, we barely remember that they need to be cleaned as well.

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Even though it is not necessary to clean them every single week (ain’t nobody got time for that), we should clean our walls at least once a month for proper results.

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Your Puppy’s Toys

It goes without saying that anything dog-related is not the cleanest thing in the world. Their toys, in particular, are loaded with mold, drool, yeast, first and staph. They’re basically a paradise for every germ that exists.

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Washing your puppy’s toys is very important, for their own health and any humans living under the same roof as the pup. Soapy water or just throwing them in the washer at least once every month does wonders.

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Dog Bowls

While we always remember to wash our dishes, plates, cutlery, and cups, we almost never remember to wash our dogs’ bowls, unless they look really gross. But they actually accumulate a large number of bacteria, just like their toys.

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Washing them is essential and it takes literally one minute of our day. Washing them with soap and a designated sponge, or just throwing them to the washer works well, and makes everything taste better. In days that you want to do a proper wash, vinegar works really well.

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The Remote Control

Remote controls are constantly touched by everyone in the house, and sometimes, while snacking or eating dinner. Oftentimes, people cough or sneeze and touch change channels right after.

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The remote control is basically a hotbed for contagious viruses and tons of germs. People constantly overlook the object because it looks harmless, but it’s actually not. Disinfectant wipes, cotton swabs dampened on alcohol or any other all-purpose cleaning wipes should work to clean your remote control.

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Door Handle

Door handles are very similar to stair rails and light switches when it comes to being exposed to dirt, bacteria and viruses. Anything that is touched several times a day by different people is at risk of being really dirty.

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While in public places we might be more aware of this fact, the home is a tricky one too. Clean it with a damp cloth with soap, or spray some all-purpose cleaning liquid a couple of times a week so that you make sure that the bacteria is constantly being killed.

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Your Purse

Now here is something that we would have never thought of. It might come as a surprise to many of us, that purses and bags are actually really dirty items in our home. Some studies have even suggested that they are dirtier than toilets.

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Leather handbags in specific pose an even greater probability of holding germs and bacteria due to their ‘spongy nature’, which is basically the heaven of bacterial growth. Cleaning and sanitizing them is extremely important.

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Garbage Can

This might be an obvious one, but even though most people take out their trash at least once every day, most simply add a new bag for the next day’s trash. A garbage can could stay without being washed for as long as a year in some households.

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Garbage Can

Yet, garbage bins hold something like 411 germs per square inch. It is extremely important to regularly (or at least once a week) clean it with a soapy and really hot sponge. And if you want to do it right, in addition to cleaning it once a week, the results would be better if the garbage bin is taken outside once a month and sprayed with water mixed with bleach.

Sponge

It’s not a secret that sponges absorb everything and are probably the dirtiest ‘cleaning’ items in the kitchen. There’s been tons of research done on how packed with dirt sponges are, particularly with microscopic bacteria.

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So it is crucial that we clean our sponges every day, and that we constantly change them, especially when they’re smelly. Smelly sponges are a sign of built-up bacteria. A simple way of cleaning is to simply place it in the dishwasher or to put a wet sponge in the microwave for about a minute to two.