What if you found out the place you are preparing your food is about two times dirtier than your toilet seat? Gross, right? But unfortunately it's true.
In his recent article for New York Times, pediatrics professor Aaron E. Carroll revealed that the average kitchen counter has about 2.75 colonies of coliform bacteria per square inch, and the average household toilet seat has 0.68. This is really just a complicated way of saying your kitchen counter is much dirtier than the one thing you avoid touching: your toilet seat.
Here are several other places in your house you dont think about cleaning as much as you should, but are actually dirtier than your toilet seat:
1. Fridge handle
You usually touch this right before preparing food (on your dirty kitchen counter), but you dont put much thought into washing your hands afterward. The fridge handle has nearly as much bacteria as your kitchen counter.
2. Sponges
The absolute grossest thing in your kitchen is your sponge. Remember how the toilet seat has 0.68 colonies per square inch? A sponge is 20 million colonies per square inch. 20 MILLION! Think about that when youre using your sponge to wipe your counter.
3. Cell phone
You touch it every day. You take it in the bathroom with you, and then you scroll through your Facebook feed while you eat lunch. So, obviously your phone has some serious bacteria on it.
4. Wallet
Anything you touch often is likely to have loads of bacteria. Money is no exception, and many people know that money is pretty dirty. What you think of less often is that the thing holding your money - your wallet - is contaminated with the same bacteria.
5. Light switches
Light switches were among the most contaminated surface in a hotel, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The other most contaminated objects were ...
6. Remote controls
Thats right. Your remote controls are nasty (far, far, dirtier than your toilet seat).
7. Computer keyboards
You touch it everyday, but how long has it been since you cleaned it?
8. Bathroom faucet
Basically everything in the bathroom except for the toilet seat has a ton of germs on it. While the toilet has around .68 coliform bacteria per square inch, the faucet has 15.84.
9. Toilet handle
Fortunately, most people clean the toilet handle when theyre wiping off the toilet, but in case youre tempted to skip it - dont. The handle has 34.65 coliform bacteria per square inch.
Carroll said information like this tends to make people obsessive about cleaning, and while you should be mindful of these dirty places, you dont have to worry too much.
For most of us, our immune systems are pretty hardy, Carroll wrote. Weve all been touching this dirty stuff for a long time, without knowing it, and doing just fine.
In his recent article for New York Times, pediatrics professor Aaron E. Carroll revealed that the average kitchen counter has about 2.75 colonies of coliform bacteria per square inch, and the average household toilet seat has 0.68. This is really just a complicated way of saying your kitchen counter is much dirtier than the one thing you avoid touching: your toilet seat.
Here are several other places in your house you dont think about cleaning as much as you should, but are actually dirtier than your toilet seat:
1. Fridge handle
You usually touch this right before preparing food (on your dirty kitchen counter), but you dont put much thought into washing your hands afterward. The fridge handle has nearly as much bacteria as your kitchen counter.
2. Sponges
The absolute grossest thing in your kitchen is your sponge. Remember how the toilet seat has 0.68 colonies per square inch? A sponge is 20 million colonies per square inch. 20 MILLION! Think about that when youre using your sponge to wipe your counter.
3. Cell phone
You touch it every day. You take it in the bathroom with you, and then you scroll through your Facebook feed while you eat lunch. So, obviously your phone has some serious bacteria on it.
4. Wallet
Anything you touch often is likely to have loads of bacteria. Money is no exception, and many people know that money is pretty dirty. What you think of less often is that the thing holding your money - your wallet - is contaminated with the same bacteria.
5. Light switches
Light switches were among the most contaminated surface in a hotel, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The other most contaminated objects were ...
6. Remote controls
Thats right. Your remote controls are nasty (far, far, dirtier than your toilet seat).
7. Computer keyboards
You touch it everyday, but how long has it been since you cleaned it?
8. Bathroom faucet
Basically everything in the bathroom except for the toilet seat has a ton of germs on it. While the toilet has around .68 coliform bacteria per square inch, the faucet has 15.84.
9. Toilet handle
Fortunately, most people clean the toilet handle when theyre wiping off the toilet, but in case youre tempted to skip it - dont. The handle has 34.65 coliform bacteria per square inch.
Carroll said information like this tends to make people obsessive about cleaning, and while you should be mindful of these dirty places, you dont have to worry too much.
For most of us, our immune systems are pretty hardy, Carroll wrote. Weve all been touching this dirty stuff for a long time, without knowing it, and doing just fine.
