Is it Possible to Rid Your Home of All Bacteria?

You cannot rid your home of bacteria. In fact, complete sterilization is almost impossible, even in a hospital setting. Your goal is to reduce the levels of harmful bacteria enough to create a healthy environment.

 

There are products that promise to do this for you, but most of it comes down to good old fashioned diligence and elbow grease. The antibacterial cleaning products on the market are not significantly better than regular cleaning products, despite the wild claims made by the advertising companies. Worse, they also get into our fresh-water system in the sort of low levels that allow bacteria in our sewers to become resistant to their antibacterial powers, which is a serious and growing issue.

Bacteria in the home can be lessened by cleaning your toilet regularly and by making sure the lid is down when you flush. Your garbage can should also have a lid and should be scrubbed out when it is emptied. Make sure that any food is removed from your refrigerator when it has expired. Bacteria will feed on any available food source, including those in refrigerators. Hand washing also goes a long way towards halting the spread of anything nasty that has gotten into your home.

 

Before you get obsessed with bacteria, realize that it’s just a natural part of the environment. You have bacteria in your gut that helps you to digest food and, if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be able to process food. There are bacteria on the table in front of you, on your hands, on your face and in your hair. Most of it is actually beneficial.

 

There are some types, however, that are downright harmful. Most often, these are bacteria associated with bathrooms, garbage cans and other dirty areas, so be particularly diligent about cleaning those areas, and you’ll avoid most of the negative side-effects of harmful bacteria.

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