21 Dirtiest Places in Your Home

Raw meat, raw fish, what’s left of dinner — the sink has plenty of growing bacteria. Give it a scrub with baking soda, then follow up with a white vinegar soak. Add a few tablespoons of vinegar to warm water, or place vinegar-saturated paper towels in the sink for 15 minutes to completely sanitize.

Your morning cup of joe may have more than caffeine in it. It may also be full of microbes. That’s because the water reservoir on your coffeemaker is an incubator of germs that will make you sick - staph, strep, and the one everybody dreads, E. coli. Remove the reservoir once a month and wash it with hot, soapy water. Flush it with vinegar regularly to clean it.

You take your trash out every day, but you need to clean the garbage can, too. The typical garbage bin has 411 germs per square inch living on it and in it. To give you an idea how dirty that is, a toilet seat has 295 germs per square inch. Bust the bacteria by wiping the outside of the can down with a hot, soapy sponge once a week. Once a month, take the can outside, spray the interior with a mix of bleach and water, and hose it out.

Germs can live on refrigerator handles for at least two days. Apply a small amount of dishwashing soap to a damp microfiber cloth to wipe away bacteria. Avoid using bleach or other harsh cleaners to prevent chemicals from getting in your food.