No matter how often you clean your house, it’s still likely to be teeming with germs. And while this fact was easy for some of us to overlook in the past, the COVID-19 pandemic has even casual cleaners concerned about all the surfaces and things they and their families touch.
That’s why we’ve rounded up the dirtiest items in your house that you can—and should—pay attention to the next time you go through your regular cleaning ritual.
In a study conducted in 2015, well before the coronavirus began to spread, experts at the University of Colorado at Boulder collected dust samples from over 1,000 American households. The result? They were able to identify more than 8,500 different species of bacteria, fungi, and microbes. In other words, there’s a huge amount of germs lurking under your couch cushions and on your doorknobs.
Though the best thing to do would be to deep-clean your house every week, it’s obviously unrealistic. When you do break out with disinfectant, make sure you hit the following 11 spots or otherwise change them out frequently!