We do the best we can to keep our homes clean. There can be a difference between clean and sanitized, though. Then, there can be spots or common things in a house which are bacteria hotspots. It’s easy to neglect it, or not know these spots might need more than a routine cleaning. How do you protect your home from bacteria hotspots?

Make certain you get to all those hygiene hotspots around your house and fully sanitize them. Germs, viruses and bacteria could make life miserable for you and your family. You want your home to be as safe and as healthy as possible. How is it best to disinfect the places that need it most?

Some of the most bacteria-covered places in your home are the ones you use frequently and probably never think of. Think of doors and refrigerators. These frequent-contact surfaces may hold the flu, cold, Salmonella, Norovirus and more.

Cleaning? Or Sanitizing?

Cleaning is a simple cleaning of a surface area or item. When you clean your kitchen counter in the kitchen or the floor in the bathroom, you might simply get rid of food particles, dirt, dust and other mess. Some amount of bacteria is cleaned up, but not all. You can even go as far as using soapy water, vinegar and a lot of difference cleaning products and do a better job, but it’s still cleaning and not sanitizing.

Sanitization is more than removing grease, dust, food or other particles. There are germs and bacteria on a kitchen counter. You want to eliminate germs and contaminants as close to 100% as possible. For bacteria hotspots in a residence, cleaning alone is not enough. Following up with correct sanitization at regular periods is also a major step.

The Worst Bacteria Hotspots in a Home

What are the hygienic hotspots in your house? To keep a house healthy for the family and visitors, it is important to maintain excellent hygiene. This means doing all you can to stop spots in the house from being breeding grounds for germs and bacteria. We’re all busy, however, so where do you focus your time and effort?

Kitchen Countertop and Sink

Food, dust, microorganisms, and liquid spills are still just some of what goes all over a kitchen sink and countertop. It’s be a bigger mess if you’re working with raw meat, seafood and unwashed fruit and vegetables.

Even in the sink, where you wash food, hands, dishes and everything, it needs to be sanitized on a frequent basis. Food particles and nasty stuff left in a sink can be a spot for microorganisms and bacteria. Think of a cutting board and more which needs to be cleaned and sanitized often.

Cloths and Sponges

It’s easy to forget about washcloths and sponges in a kitchen or bathroom. You use these things to clean. Yet, you never can rinse all the bacteria and germs out of a cloth or sponge. The sponge stays wet all the time. Bacteria can grow fast in a damp environment and surface. If you wind up using the same sponge for weeks or months, it’s spreading bacteria all over the kitchen.

Faucets

Faucets and taps, especially in bathrooms and the kitchen, get dirty pretty often. What’s more then, people with dirty hands touch them, get their hands clean, but the tap can be more contaminated than it was a minute ago. Then the next person comes along and does the same thing. These surfaces should be disinfected very often.

Handles, switches and doorknobs

How many times is someone in a house touching a knob, the bathroom door, light switches, toilet handles, cabinet handles, kitchen drawers, the refrigerator handle? They are small and gather more touches in the exact same spot, so germs are about as concentrated as you can get.

Remotes, phones and toys

We probably have a phone, mouse, tablet, remote, keyboard or device in our hands for hours worth of the day. We eat or drink something, touch the remote or the phone. Someone else does the same. A cell phone is definitely a bacterial hotspot to keep in mind and sanitize frequently. Toys, video game controllers and anything else kids play with, multiple kids, with contaminants from all over, need to be sanitized often.

Carpet

Carpet generally gathers and holds onto a lot of dust and dirt. This is not good for anyone and can be especially troubling to people with dust allergies. Pet hair, germs, mites and other microscopic, then easily airborne, particulates can stay around more in carpeted areas.

Refrigerators and Kitchen Appliances

Correct cleaning of a refrigerator is essential, but it’s easy to ignore. Dirty refrigerators can act as a breeding place for hazardous microorganisms such as salmonella, listeria and E. coli.

Microwaves hold bacteria on a regular basis. Foods are taken in and out of microwaves often and can leave a mess. Some messes are easy to see, some aren’t. This makes them breeding ground for many germs and bacteria.

Kitchen Cabinets

It is not only the cabinet handles you should remember to sanitize. The inside surfaces in cabinets are bacteria hotspots.

Can you guarantee you constantly dry the washed, but still wet, utensils before putting them inside the cabinets? If there’s moisture in a cabinet or drawer, it can let bacteria and other pathogens grow.

Very often you may touch the cupboards, the handles, the doors, the interior, after dealing with raw food or food straight from the store. This is a way germs and bacteria get in and grow.

Toilets

It’s pretty obvious here. Every part of a toilet can be hotspots for bacteria. Multiple people touch it. Every surface of a toilet should be sanitized with anti-bacterial product often.

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At South End Heating and Air we are Charlotte’s affordable AC experts. Call us anytime for a free consult and free estimate. We’ll evaluate your system and help make recommendations for optimum value. After all, we want to keep you cool all summer long and warm in the winter. Just schedule a visit with one of our technicians to talk about how we can help. Would you like to learn more options our techs can help you with? Give us a call 704-684-5339.