Whether you consider yourself a meticulous housekeeper or admit you’re a slob who’s been known to leave dishes piled in the sink overnight, there are germs in your home. Of course, it’s not possible, practical, or even healthy to live in a sterile environment. But knowing what surfaces and items tend to harbor illness-causing bacteria and viruses and how to zap those germs into oblivion can help protect you and your family from a host of ills -- including colds, flu, strep throats, and food poisoning.

Think you already know the germiest areas in your home and how to disinfect them adequately? Even if your house looks clean and smells fresh, odds are there are a few places where nasty pathogens are lurking. Here are some common germ hotspots and what you can do to eliminate them.

The unappetizing truth about kitchens

Micro-organisms that cause food-borne illness can be spread from raw meat and vegetables during food preparation directly onto chopping boards, utensils, worktops, and other foods and then spread to additional surfaces around the home via your hands. But you wipe down the kitchen counter with a sponge soaked in hot soapy water before and after preparing food and you disinfect the cutting board regularly. So you are getting rid of disease causing organisms in the kitchen, right?

Not necessarily.

The Hygiene Council (a group of microbiology, virology, infectious diseases, immunology, and public health experts who educate consumers about using effective hygiene practices stop the spread of infectious diseases) recently announced the results of a study showing that Americans are losing the battle against germs in the kitchen.

Take the widely used kitchen sponge, for example. In fact, take it and throw it away -- because 70 percent of American kitchen sponges analyzed harbored E. coli, bacteria that can cause urinary tract infections and diarrhea.

And while scrupulously cleaning up after preparing poultry and other foods often-contaminated with bacteria is to be applauded, sickness causing germs could still be thriving in your kitchen. How? It’s simple. If you touched the faucet or faucet handles with your hands before washing up, you could have contaminated the faucet and handles with nasty pathogens. The Hygiene Council study found that even when people claimed to clean their sink faucet handles at least once a week, 60 percent of American faucets analyzed had unsatisfactory or heavily contaminated levels of bacteria associated with feces that can cause upset stomachs and skin infections.

Another favorite spot for germs is the kitchen sink. It’s no wonder when you consider all the dirt and food scraps that end up in there. Bottom line: a lot of kitchen sinks have been found to be germier than toilet seats.

Thankfully, these kitchen problems are easily solved:

• The Hygiene Council advises spraying a disinfectant on faucets regularly to kill germs.
• Clean your kitchen sink frequently with a bleach-based cleaner.
• Consider cleaning kitchen surfaces using paper towels and a disinfectant product before preparing food and immediately after surfaces have been in contact with raw foods, such as meat and poultry.
• If you use a dishcloth for cleaning the kitchen, throw it in the wash right away -- don’t leave it hanging around to dry (and spread germs) by the sink.
• The Hygiene Council advises giving up sponges. But if you insist on using them, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says microwaving a sponge for one minute on high significantly reduces bacteria, mold, and yeast counts.

Nasty bathroom surprises

It’s not as germ-ridden as most kitchens, but the bathroom is also a place where potentially disease-causing microbes hang out -- and not just in the obvious places, like the toilet.

By the way, while it’s important to clean the toilet with a disinfectant at least once a week, don’t forget the toilet flush handle, the cleaning brush handle and the plunger handle. Spray them down or wipe them off with a germ killing cleaner regularly, too.

Always flush with the lid down, too. The reason? According to University of Arizona microbiologist Charles Gerba, PhD, polluted, invisible water vapor flies out of the flushing toilet bowl. And it can take several hours for those particles to settle -- and contaminate -- areas of your bathroom. And we hate to tell you this dirty detail, but you you need to know: if your toothbrush is kept too close to the toilet, Gerba warns you are brushing your teeth with germy remnants of what you flushed down your toilet.

If all this downright yucky information makes you want to take a bath, consider this -- your bathtub could contain100 times more bacteria than your trash can. According to a study conducted by the Center for Hygiene and Health in Home and Community at Simmons College in Boston, bathtubs were found to typically have more than 100,000 bacteria per square inch. Another recent study found staphylococcus bacteria, which can cause serious skin infections, contaminated 26 percent of tested bathtubs.

Some of those bacteria and viruses you washed off your body hang around and grow on your bathtub after your bath. The solution, say the Hygiene Council experts, is to apply a disinfecting cleaner to the tub twice a week and to scrub well. Then rinse and dry the tub with a clean towel.

Don’t ignore your showerhead, either. It’s dark, wet, and warm inside there -- the perfect place for bacteria that cause lung diseases to thrive. A study reported last fall in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science found water coming out of showerheads can spray your body and the surrounding air with opportunistic bugs like Mycobacterium avium and other germs. These micro-organisms can get trapped in showerheads and merge into a coat of slime known as a biofilm that delivers a bacteria laden shower when you turn on the water.

While these showerhead-loving germs mostly sicken people who are immune compromised or susceptible to pulmonary infections, it’s a good idea to run hot water on full power for a minute or two to flush any germs away before showering. Spray the showerhead with disinfectant a couple of times a week, too.

More tips for a less germy bathroom:

• Get personal. Don’t share towels with family members. Try assigning a different color towel to each family member. By not swapping towels, you won’t swap as many cold viruses and other germs.
• Keep your toothbrush at least an inch away from other toothbrushes. Replace toothbrushes every couple of months and immediately after you’ve had an illness like the flu or cold -- germs can remain long after you’ve recovered.
• Regularly wipe down all high-touch bathroom surfaces with disinfectant spray or wipes -- don’t forget faucets, cupboard handles, doorknobs, shower door handles, and any other areas you’ve touched with your hands.
• Use a dispenser for disposable paper cups. Plastic, glass, or ceramic cups can spread enormous amounts of viruses.

Other favorite germ hiding places

Your laundry area is where you clean clothes -- so it may seem surprising that it can be a breeding place for disease-causing pathogens that can survive a run through the wash cycle. In fact, studies have shown that clothing contaminated with harmful microbes can infect uncontaminated clothing in the laundry hamper and, during washing, these germs may be only partially removed by the rinse cycle.

The lower the temperature the less likely you are to be zapping germs in your wash. So the Hygiene Council advises washing clothes, linen, towels, and other fabrics at a temperature above 60 °C. If your clothes can’t take the hot wash, add a laundry disinfectant. Washing heavily soiled items separately and drying clothes immediately after washing also help prevent germ build up.

Sweat, flakes of skin, and bacteria from your body accumulate every night on your sheets -- making them a perfect germ breeding ground. Sheets can be repositories for cold and flu viruses, too. So you need to change and wash sheets weekly, more often if you’ve been sick or the sheets become soiled.

The best way to de-germ them? Wash them in warm or hot water with a regular detergent and add bleach or a bleach-alternative to keep them sanitized.

Additional germ alerts:

• A recent study found there are more bacteria, including staph germs, on the average cell phone than on door knobs, the bottom of shoes, or even toilet seats. Wipe your cell phone off with disinfectant wipes frequently -- wipe landline receivers, too.
• Your home desk, computer keyboard, and mouse aren’t far behind in potential germ contamination. Wipe them off with disinfectant once a day and you’ll lower the potential pathogen count by about 99 percent.
• Couch potato warning! Sure you like to flip through the channels while eating popcorn and other goodies but you’re leaving a lot of germs behind. Remember to sanitize the remote control regularly to help prevent sickness.
• Get in the habit of wiping off light switches with a disinfectant twice a week or daily if someone in your household is sick.
• You don’t have to wash your pet’s food dishes ever day but do stick them in the dishwasher weekly. And wash your hands after touching dog and cat bowls.
• Have a baby at home? Make sure the changing table is cleaned regularly, preferably after every diaper change. Remember that touching the baby wipes container, diaper packaging, and trash can all spread germs. Wash your hands often and wipe down everything you’ve touched with disinfectant.
• You can’t keep youngsters pristinely clean -- it’s normal for them to share toys and to sometimes stick them in their mouths. But you can cut down on germs by throwing stuffed animals in the washing machine weekly during cold and flu season. Wipe down toy surfaces with disinfecting wipes, too.
• If you have a choice, choose area rugs over wall-to-wall carpeting. Carpeting is hard to clean and can harbor huge amounts of germs.
• Cleaning hard surface floors with an appropriate detergent and water weekly removes not only dust and dirt but germs, too.

Sherry Baker is a writer from Atlanta, Georgia. She last wrote Recycling Facts That May Surprise You for Synergy. Sherry can be reached at featuredstories@adamcorp.com.