Are you in any mood for spring cleaning your house? Maybe cleaning is hard work and doesn’t motivate you. Do you know the dirtiest place in your house is your KITCHEN or your kitchen rags?
Our multi-culture society has too many good food and recipes. Local produces made into pastes, stir fry with anything we can think of. As they say, “good for the soul, bad for the heart” (could be). With splashing oil everywhere, it makes the kitchen extremely dirty. But that part is not what you should be worrying about, it is the tiny organisms that sticks around is something you need to worry about. That is what makes you sick.
This might come surprised to some of us, but our kitchen is full of bacteria and germs, compared to all the area of our house. Let’s see percentage here of how many are them hiding in our kitchen:
- Kitchen Sponges and rags with more than 75%
- Kitchen sinks with 45%
- Countertops with 32%
- And finally, your chopping board with 18% which we covered previously in “Dirty Chopping Board Could Be Giving You Food Poisoning!”
Rags, the most common thing yet important when it comes to cleaning. It can be from your old clothes or the pricier microfibre cloths. Regardless of what they are made of, they wiped your entire house surface, therefore, they are also the dirtiest. They can harbour various bacteria and germs. So, how do you safely use this important object for cleaning?
Image source via Pixabay
Dr S Malar Santhi, a health officer for the Columbia Asia Hospital, have these 5 suggestions you can follow to use your rags properly:
- You can separate each rag in your house for various purposes. Example, by categorising which rag you would use to wipe raw food or normal spillage. By this, you can avoid the spreading of bacteria from raw food like E. coli bacteria or salmonella throughout your house.
- Having different rags for either indoor or outdoor uses. The dirt from both your kitchen and outside your house is different.
- Easy way to know which rag belong to what purpose is by separating them according to its colours and its fabric made of. Rags made of microfibre can remove bacteria, so you use them instead when you are doing a thorough cleaning.
- Do set an “expiry date” for your rags. Although there are no rules on how long a rag should be used, Dr Santhi suggested three to twelve months of use, depending on how often do you use them. You will know how long has the rags have been used as over time, the rags will change its colour and its fabric will become thinner.
- For the cleanliness of your rags, do wash them daily with detergent. When cleaning your house, the rags you used attracts many dirt and germs. By washing them regularly, not only is your rags squeaky clean, but free from bacteria as well.
Don’t forget about the sponges, as they too harbour many bacteria. Most of us would keep our sponges until they are really dirty and smelly. Depending on its uses, for health concerns, do have your sponges change regularly.
It's a hard-knock life for us Image source via Make A Gif
Apart from all the physical hard work, cleaning your kitchen should be simple. But what we are trying to avoid and get rid off, are those harmful bacteria so we won’t get sick. Plus, imagine being proud because you have a shiny clean kitchen and that might motivate you to make better meals. STAY SAFE!!!
