Toilet seats can be dirty—but they are likely not the dirtiest things in your home. “Most people think a toilet seat is one of the germiest places there is, but it’s one of the places nearly all of us regularly clean,” Jessica Ek, senior director of digital communications at the American Cleaning Institute, tells Better Homes & Gardens. “What tends to get dirtier are the places we touch a lot but take for granted and don’t clean as often as we should.” Here are 7 everyday items that are probably dirtier than a toilet seat.
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1. Cell Phones
Shutterstock Phone addicts, look away—your cell phone is likely 10 times dirtier than a toilet seat. “Because people are always carrying their cell phones even in situations where they would normally wash their hands before doing anything, cell phones do tend to get pretty gross,” Emily Martin, PhD, MPH, tells TIME. “Taking a cell phone into the bathroom and then leaving with it is kind of like going in, not washing your hands and then coming back out. It’s the same level of concern."
2. Bath and Kitchen Towels
ShutterstockBath and kitchen towels are teeming with bacteria. “E. coli grows quite well on towels. Within about three or four days, you’ll get fecal bacteria in the towel easily because it’s wet, it’s moist,” microbiologist Charles Gerba, PhD, tells CNN. “And it’s hard to get rid of the bacteria when you do your laundry with a cold-water wash. Towels are so thick it’s hard to get them really clean. You’ll get more E. coli in your face when you dry your face with a towel at home than if you stuck your head in a toilet and flushed. You’ve got to use hot water wash and dry towels really well.”
3. Toothbrush Holder
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When was the last time you cleaned your toothbrush holder? “The chances are it's one of the dirtiest things in the house,” says CityMD. “In fact, a 2011 public health organization report found that 27 percent of toothbrush holders tested positive for coliform bacteria, which includes Salmonella and E. coli.”
4. Bed Sheets
ShutterstockWash your bed sheets regularly—they are often covered in dirt and bacteria. “We spend lots of time in our beds,” says Dr. Reginald Nguyen, a family medicine doctor with Memorial Hermann Medical Group Sugar Land Primary Care. “You shower yourself and clean your clothes daily or almost daily. But we forget bedding, which can get moist when we sweat.”
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5. Cutting Board
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Kitchen cutting board need to be fully sanitized, especially after being used for raw meat. “You've probably heard about this bacteria breeding ground before, so we can't stress the importance of thoroughly cleaning and scrubbing this surface enough,” says CItyMD. “In fact, a run through the dishwasher occasionally is ideal.”
6. Pet Bowls
iStockWhen was the last time you washed your pet’s food and water bowls? “We often refill their bowls without washing them as much as we would our own plates,” Dr. Nguyen says. “Imagine us eating dry food from the same bowl each day without cleaning it.”
7. Kitchen Sponge
ShutterstockThe kitchen is one of the dirtiest parts of the home, and your kitchen sponge is likely teeming with bacteria, according to research. "We found 362 different species of bacteria, and locally, the density of bacteria reached up to 45 billion per square centimeter," Markus Egert, a microbiologist at Furtwangen University in Germany, tells NPR. “That's a very huge number of bacteria, indeed. There's hardly any habitat on Earth where you'll find similar densities of bacteria, except for the human intestinal tract."
