Germs, your mind probably goes straight to the toilet literally. It’s easy to assume that the toilet, and the bathroom in general, are the dirtiest places you visit frequently on a daily basis. However, that surprisingly just isn’t true. There are far filthier things that you’d never suspect, in fact, there are things you touch, carry and use every day that transport and transfer way more icky germs and bacteria than you could even imagine. We’ve found some everyday items and locations that carry way more cooties than your toilet seat.
University of Arizona researchers found that the average cutting board has 200 times more fecal bacteria than a toilet seat. A big culprit: raw meat, since many fecal bacteria originate in animals’ internal organs. So, the last chicken cutlet you diced? The tiny grooves your knife left in the cutting board are prime real estate for germs to get cozy.
Wash cutting boards with liquid dish detergent and water, then soak thoroughly in a solution of 2 teaspoons bleach and 1 gallon of water.
2. Phones/Tabs
The next time you’re about to put your cell phone to your ear, think about the last place you laid it or the last place you took it or what you touched before picking your phone. Yes, we know you’re answering Facebook messages or catching up on Candy Crush in the bathroom at work. Believe it or not, your cell phone may have 500 times more bacteria than your toilet. Now you may want to think twice before pressing that thing up against your cheek.
Reduce your exposure to germs by cleaning your electronic screens with screen wipes or a damp, soft cloth or leaving them out of the bathroom in the first place.
3. Ladies' Bags.
Just like a cell phone, women take their purses/bags everywhere, keep lots of items in them and put them down in just as many places. We don’t think twice before tossing them carelessly under the table at a restaurant, on the bathroom floor, atop a sticky bar or under our seats at the movie theater. Besides your wallet, makeup and cell phone, there’s a pretty good chance you’re also carrying things like staphylococcus bacteria and fecal matter.
Keep your bags off the ground, make sure item in the bags are clean and regularly washcloth bags when possible. For plastic or leather bags, use disinfectant wipes.
4. Kitchen Zinc.
While you may think your kitchen sink is clean due to all of the sanitizing that happens there, it’s quite possibly the most unsanitary place in your house. Most kitchen sinks are full of germs such as Salmonella and E. Coli, while the drain may carry 500,000 bacteria per square inch.
Disinfect and clean regularly.
5. Kitchen/Bathing Sponge.
Kitchen/Bathing sponges are one of the most unsuspecting germ-filled things in your house. Due to the fact that they’re porous and moist, germs and bacteria live and breed on the very sponges that you use to clean counters, dishes, and utensils. In fact, sponges typically have 10 million bacteria per square inch, making them the germiest thing in your house.
Each week, toss in hot water.
6. Keyboards.
Bet you sneezed at work today and kept typing without washing your hands, or maybe you share a keyboard with your entire family, including a teenager with God, knows what under their fingernails. Well, that God knows what is now smeared all over your keyboard, spreading germs and bacteria with each and every keystroke. In fact, keyboards typically have 400 times more bacteria than your toilet seat.
In 2007, a stomach flu outbreak at a Washington, D.C. elementary school struck more than 100 people and may have spread through unclean computer equipment like keyboards, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Wash hands, and surfaces often.
7. Restaurant Menu.
While glancing at the menu at your favorite restaurant, you may want to think about how many hands have touched that menu and how often it’s cleaned
8. Ice.
Ordering a drink at your favorite restaurant or bar? You may want to ask for it without the ice. Due to dirty ice makers and unsanitary storage conditions, studies have shown that ice served in restaurants often have more bacteria than toilet water.
9. Shopping Carts.
Much like restaurant menus, grocery carts fall prey to being touched by lots of hands and receiving little cleaning.
10. Money.
On average, a bill is transferred between over 55 different hands and may carry up to 200,000 living bacteria. That brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “dirty money.”
11. Clean Laundry.
A load of underwear will transfer at least 100 million E. coli bacteria, the culprit behind diarrhea to the washing machine, which becomes a breeding ground that can contaminate other clothing. With a front-loading machine, it's worse; water settles at the bottom and creates the moist environment bacteria loves.
Disinfect your machine by washing a load of whites with bleach first, or cleaning your washer with bleach at least once a month (pour 2 cups of bleach into the detergent compartment, and run empty on the hottest cycle before wiping dry and leave the door open after). To avoid spreading bacteria, wash underwear separately with hot water and a color-safe bleach replacement.
12. Refrigerator.
Refrigerators commonly test positive for e. Coli and salmonella.
13. Remote.
The remote is often one of the most filthy items in your household.
14. Mattress/Pillow.
After around 10 years of use, your mattress can double in weight due to dead skin cells and dust mite feces.
15. Toothbrush.
It's difficult to know how many germs are lurking on your toothbrush, but you can safely assume it's a lot. What makes this so disgusting is the fact your toothbrush goes in your mouth, but that's exactly why they are prone to harboring germs in the first place. Brushing removes bacteria, which is good, but toothbrushes are also damp and rarely cleaned so these germs have the perfect environment in which to breed. There is also evidence to suggest that flushing the toilet releases thousands of tiny, bacteria-containing droplets, covering the bathroom (and your toothbrush) with nasty bugs. Allowing the brush to dry out fully, changing it regularly and soaking it in mouthwash can all reduce the number of germs.
16. Keys.
Have you ever thought about washing your keys? Well you should, because these things end up at the bottom of bags, on the table, on the floor, next to your testicles or in someone else’s hands. Sometimes the key links themselves collect grime or the key which has been pushed in and out of a dusty keyhole for years.
17. Steering Wheels/Gear/Handbrakes.
Some researchers at The Queen Mary University discovered that over 700 kinds of bacteria inhabit each square inch of a steering wheel, with it being 9 times dirtier than a toilet. In fact, almost half of all drivers regularly eat food in their car. Their car is basically a death-trap, a giant motorized bag of rat poison. This is pretty easy to avoid though just purchase a new car every week and give the old diseased vehicle to someone you don’t like. Lolz
- Cutting/Chopping Board.
University of Arizona researchers found that the average cutting board has 200 times more fecal bacteria than a toilet seat. A big culprit: raw meat, since many fecal bacteria originate in animals’ internal organs. So, the last chicken cutlet you diced? The tiny grooves your knife left in the cutting board are prime real estate for germs to get cozy.
Wash cutting boards with liquid dish detergent and water, then soak thoroughly in a solution of 2 teaspoons bleach and 1 gallon of water.
2. Phones/Tabs
The next time you’re about to put your cell phone to your ear, think about the last place you laid it or the last place you took it or what you touched before picking your phone. Yes, we know you’re answering Facebook messages or catching up on Candy Crush in the bathroom at work. Believe it or not, your cell phone may have 500 times more bacteria than your toilet. Now you may want to think twice before pressing that thing up against your cheek.
Reduce your exposure to germs by cleaning your electronic screens with screen wipes or a damp, soft cloth or leaving them out of the bathroom in the first place.
3. Ladies' Bags.
Just like a cell phone, women take their purses/bags everywhere, keep lots of items in them and put them down in just as many places. We don’t think twice before tossing them carelessly under the table at a restaurant, on the bathroom floor, atop a sticky bar or under our seats at the movie theater. Besides your wallet, makeup and cell phone, there’s a pretty good chance you’re also carrying things like staphylococcus bacteria and fecal matter.
Keep your bags off the ground, make sure item in the bags are clean and regularly washcloth bags when possible. For plastic or leather bags, use disinfectant wipes.
4. Kitchen Zinc.
While you may think your kitchen sink is clean due to all of the sanitizing that happens there, it’s quite possibly the most unsanitary place in your house. Most kitchen sinks are full of germs such as Salmonella and E. Coli, while the drain may carry 500,000 bacteria per square inch.
Disinfect and clean regularly.
5. Kitchen/Bathing Sponge.
Kitchen/Bathing sponges are one of the most unsuspecting germ-filled things in your house. Due to the fact that they’re porous and moist, germs and bacteria live and breed on the very sponges that you use to clean counters, dishes, and utensils. In fact, sponges typically have 10 million bacteria per square inch, making them the germiest thing in your house.
Each week, toss in hot water.
6. Keyboards.
Bet you sneezed at work today and kept typing without washing your hands, or maybe you share a keyboard with your entire family, including a teenager with God, knows what under their fingernails. Well, that God knows what is now smeared all over your keyboard, spreading germs and bacteria with each and every keystroke. In fact, keyboards typically have 400 times more bacteria than your toilet seat.
In 2007, a stomach flu outbreak at a Washington, D.C. elementary school struck more than 100 people and may have spread through unclean computer equipment like keyboards, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Wash hands, and surfaces often.
7. Restaurant Menu.
While glancing at the menu at your favorite restaurant, you may want to think about how many hands have touched that menu and how often it’s cleaned
8. Ice.
Ordering a drink at your favorite restaurant or bar? You may want to ask for it without the ice. Due to dirty ice makers and unsanitary storage conditions, studies have shown that ice served in restaurants often have more bacteria than toilet water.
9. Shopping Carts.
Much like restaurant menus, grocery carts fall prey to being touched by lots of hands and receiving little cleaning.
10. Money.
On average, a bill is transferred between over 55 different hands and may carry up to 200,000 living bacteria. That brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “dirty money.”
11. Clean Laundry.
A load of underwear will transfer at least 100 million E. coli bacteria, the culprit behind diarrhea to the washing machine, which becomes a breeding ground that can contaminate other clothing. With a front-loading machine, it's worse; water settles at the bottom and creates the moist environment bacteria loves.
Disinfect your machine by washing a load of whites with bleach first, or cleaning your washer with bleach at least once a month (pour 2 cups of bleach into the detergent compartment, and run empty on the hottest cycle before wiping dry and leave the door open after). To avoid spreading bacteria, wash underwear separately with hot water and a color-safe bleach replacement.
12. Refrigerator.
Refrigerators commonly test positive for e. Coli and salmonella.
13. Remote.
The remote is often one of the most filthy items in your household.
14. Mattress/Pillow.
After around 10 years of use, your mattress can double in weight due to dead skin cells and dust mite feces.
15. Toothbrush.
It's difficult to know how many germs are lurking on your toothbrush, but you can safely assume it's a lot. What makes this so disgusting is the fact your toothbrush goes in your mouth, but that's exactly why they are prone to harboring germs in the first place. Brushing removes bacteria, which is good, but toothbrushes are also damp and rarely cleaned so these germs have the perfect environment in which to breed. There is also evidence to suggest that flushing the toilet releases thousands of tiny, bacteria-containing droplets, covering the bathroom (and your toothbrush) with nasty bugs. Allowing the brush to dry out fully, changing it regularly and soaking it in mouthwash can all reduce the number of germs.
16. Keys.
Have you ever thought about washing your keys? Well you should, because these things end up at the bottom of bags, on the table, on the floor, next to your testicles or in someone else’s hands. Sometimes the key links themselves collect grime or the key which has been pushed in and out of a dusty keyhole for years.
17. Steering Wheels/Gear/Handbrakes.
Some researchers at The Queen Mary University discovered that over 700 kinds of bacteria inhabit each square inch of a steering wheel, with it being 9 times dirtier than a toilet. In fact, almost half of all drivers regularly eat food in their car. Their car is basically a death-trap, a giant motorized bag of rat poison. This is pretty easy to avoid though just purchase a new car every week and give the old diseased vehicle to someone you don’t like. Lolz
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