Where Does Bacteria Live?
You expect to find bacteria in certain places in your home, things like the toilet and the bins are expected to have a lot of bacteria growing in them, hence why we clean these things regularly. But bacteria doesn’t just live in these obvious places within the home, bacteria lives in a number of other places too, so in order to keep your home germ free you should get to know where you can expect to find and have to clean away bacteria.
The Kitchen Sink:
So you would expect your kitchen sink to be quite clean, after all you use it to wash up in so it has a clean even if it isn’t actually cleaned…all of this is wrong! Washing up is not the same as cleaning your sink, and you should clean your sink because food particles often cling to the sink when you use it to prepare food or wash dishes, and the sink provides an excellent breeding ground for bacteria which can cause things like E. Coli and salmonella. You should use a good disinfectant to clean your sink every day, this includes ensuring the plug is clear of obstructions and the drain isn’t blocked at all.
Toothbrushes:
Once we have used our toothbrush, what do we do with it? More often than not we leave it on the sink ready for our next brushing, what this does is keeps the brush damp. As you are probably aware, bacteria need damp places to live and as a result your toothbrush is an ideal place. To keep your toothbrush clear of bacteria ensure you put it in a holder once you have finished using it and allow it to dry, the quicker it dries the less bacteria can live in it. Further to this, you should always ensure that when you flush the toilet you put the lid down to prevent any water spilling out of the toilet, through the air and landing onto your toothbrush.
Salt and pepper shakers:
Anything that is touched and used regularly is going to pick up a lot of germs and bacteria from our hands, and this is true with salt and pepper shakers. Try to get yourself into the habit of cleaning the shakers when you clear and wipe down the table.
Your television remote control:
The remote control is another thing in our home that we touch and use often, to add to this the remote is often found on the floor or down the side of the sofa and if you have kids can often be covered in a lovely sticky coating. All of these things mean that the remote control has lots of bacteria living on it, to clean it properly you should use a multi-purpose cleaner and you should clean the remote control daily, at the very least weekly.
Computer and laptop keyboards:
As with remote controls, we use our computers often and regularly, we never think about washing our hands before we use our computer, furthermore we eat and drink whilst using it and we often cough and sneeze all over it, or all over our hands which we then use to type or place on the mouse. Because of all of this our computers are covered in germs and bacteria. To clean the computer properly you should buy some specialised cleaning products to clean the screen and some compressed air to blow any dirt and food bits out of the keyboard, you should wipe over the keyboard and the mouse and this should be done on a weekly basis, unless you use your computer daily for hours in which case you should clean it a few times a week.
