Quick Tips to Clean 10 Germy Areas in Your Home

While I don’t consider myself a germaphobe” I do try to clean and disinfect many of the germiest areas in our home on a regular basis. 

It only takes a few minutes per day and makes a huge difference in the cleanliness of your home. Even young kids can help with many of these tasks!

NOTE: I share a bit more about my daily/weekly cleaning routines at the end of this post. You might be surprised how LITTLE time it takes to keep so many germs away! 

1. Doorknobs:

Even if you don’t have a bunch of children running through your home each day, the number of hands that touch your doorknobs is probably more than you think.

This means lots and lots of germs just waiting to transfer to anyone else who eventually touches the doorknobs.

Quick Tips to Clean Germy Doorknobs: 

• Use a few disinfectant wipes or these antimicrobial cleaning cloths to quickly wipe down your door knobs once a week (it’s something easy that even a small child could do.)

2. Drawer Pulls, Handles, and other Knobs:

Along with doorknobs, I make it a practice to wipe down the majority of my kitchen and bathroom cabinet knobs and drawer pulls once a week.

I especially focus on the kitchen trash drawer as we open that cabinet so many times each day — often with dirty trash in our hands. 

Quick Tips to Clean Germy Drawer Pulls and Doorknobs:

• Grab a disinfectant wipe, or a sudsy washcloth (after washing dishes) and wipe them down. 
• Sometimes I do this while dishes are soaking in the sink, while I’m waiting for water to boil, or even while I’m waiting for the kids to finish eating. Either way, it only takes about 2 minutes to wipe down all my kitchen cabinet knobs and drawer pulls.

3. Bathroom Faucets:

Although we’re past the potty-training stage of parenting, our bathrooms still get A LOT of use each day, especially the half bath between the kitchen and mudroom.

Quick Tips to Clean Germy Bathroom Faucets:

• Wipe down handles and spout with a disinfectant wipe or disinfecting spray and a soft cloth.
• Personally, I do this every evening when I change out the hand towels as it’s an easy way for me to remember to do it. There are some days when I do it even more often if the sinks get really gross. 

4. Toilets:

When I was in the thick of potty-training, I got in the habit of wiping down the toilets every evening… and that habit sort of stuck.

I don’t do it every night anymore, but it’s not uncommon for me to quickly wipe down each toilet seat before I take my shower and go to bed.

I don’t clean the inside of the bowl with a toilet brush every day — just the handle, lid, seat, and bowl exterior. 

Quick Tips to (quickly) Clean Germy Toilets:

• While you’re in the bathroom cleaning the faucets, doorknobs, and light switches, take a minute (literally 1 minute) to quickly wipe down the toilet flusher, lid, seat, and bowl (in that order).
• I always use disinfecting wipes for this job because I like to be able to throw the wipe away when I’m finished. 

5. Kitchen Faucet and Appliance Handles:

If you have stainless steel appliances, you are most likely in the habit of wiping them down regularly due to fingerprints, grease, and grime. 

However, aside from the visible dirt and smudges you see, appliance handles are usually covered in germs. 

Just think how often you touch your dishwasher or kitchen faucet after handling raw meat or eggs. Even if you’re “careful” there’s a pretty good chance you’re smearing all sorts of germs in these areas — which eventually transfers them throughout the rest of your kitchen. 

Quick Tips to Clean Kitchen Faucet, Sink, and Appliances: 

• Use dish soap and warm water to disinfect your kitchen faucet daily (I do this when I wash dishes)
• Use baking soda and these mini scrub brushes to remove tough stuck-on dirt and grime
• Use vinegar spray and a microfiber cloth to wipe down appliance handles
• Here’s how I clean our farmhouse sink
• Here are 4 DIY recipes for cleaning stainless steel appliances

6. Light Switches:

Even though are kids are very diligent with washing their hands, they turn the light on BEFORE washing. 

This means our light switches and light switch plates are not only covered in germs, but they actually are physically dirty as well. 

Quick Tips to Clean Germy Light Switches: 

• I wipe our light switches down with a disinfectant wipe or vinegar spray and a microfiber cloth. 
• Also, since our home is mostly white (yes, that was my choice!) I often need to wipe away lots of physical dirt from the wall around the light switch too. I use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser for this — it works like a charm! 

7. Remote Controls:

I’ve read that remote controls are potentially THE germiest things in our homes — even more than the toilets — and I know I don’t always think to clean them.

It won’t take long, but it’s probably worth setting aside a few minutes to quickly wipe down your remotes.

You also might consider replacing your current remotes with Smart Remotes to reduce the number of places germs can get trapped. 

Quick Tips To Clean Germy Remotes:

• If you have a Smart Remote, simply wipe it with a disinfectant wipe. 
• If you have a remote with buttons, you can carefully wipe the surface with a disinfecting wipe (don’t use any type of spray)

8. Computer Keyboards:

Along with remote controls, computer keyboards are infested with germs — more so for me since I use my keyboard significantly more often than a TV remote.

And if you share a computer with others (either at home or in an office) this needs to be something you do on a fairly regular basis.

Quick Tips to Clean Germy Computer Keyboards:

• turn off and/or unplug the keyboard
• use a can of compressed air to gently blow dust, dirt, crumbs, etc. from inside the key area
• use a soft cloth dipped in rubbing alcohol to wipe down keyboard area
• also, wipe down the mouse and trackpad too
• clean your computer screen with a window cleaning cloth (this is the one I use and love)
• NEVER use disinfecting wipes on your computer screen!

9. Cell phones and Tablets:

These devices are constantly touched and constantly dragged with us throughout the day. Seriously, they are SUPER germy! 

Thankfully, they are easy to clean and disinfect on a fairly regular basis! 

Quick Tips to Clean Germy Phones and Tablets: 

• use a soft cloth dipped in rubbing alcohol to wipe all phone surfaces
• if you still have smudges on your screen, use a window cleaning cloth (this is the one I love)

10. Soap Dispensers:

I already mentioned the importance of disinfecting germy areas in the bathrooms and kitchen… and when you’re wiping things down, don’t forget to wipe down the soap dispsnesers.

If you really think about it, the soap dispenser is the place we touch BEFORE we wash our hands — so it really can get very gross and germy.

For many years, we had automatic soap dispensers in our bathrooms and kitchen — but then they broke and we switched back to normal foaming hand soap.

I’ve found that foaming hand soap works SO much better than liquid hand soap (especially for children). Not only does the foaming soap stay on their hands better than liquid, the kids also take more time to scrub it in, and it’s just more fun!

Quick Tips to Clean the Soap Dispenser: 

• Scrub the soap dispenser pump area with these mini scrub brushes to get in all the nooks and crannies. 
• Wipe down the whole soap bottle with warm soapy water or a disinfectant wipe. 
• Alternatively, use an automatic soap dispenser to eliminate many germs from your bathroom sink area.

More Hand Soap Resources: 

• Get my simple recipe to make your own foaming hand soap.
• Use the naturally antibacterial All-Shield goat’s milk soap from Bend Soap. I keep a bar of this at every sink in our house!

BONUS TIP: Change your furnace filters regularly!

There are so many air-born germs in our homes! I personally don’t get too uptight about that, but I do regularly change out our furnace filters to prevent more germs from circulating throughout our home. 

Plus, by changing your air filter regularly, you’ll improve the efficiency of your furnace and reduce the amount of dust that accumulates in your home (I hardly ever need to dust!) 

My Simple Cleaning and Disinfecting Routines: 

My Nightly Bathroom Cleaning Routine (3-5 minutes): 

1. Use the current hand towel to wipe up any water on the counters.
2. Toss those towels in the laundry basket.
3. Use a disinfecting wipe or soapy cloth to wipe down doorknobs, light switches, and cabinet knobs/pulls.
4. Then, wipe down faucet handles, soap dispensers, and sink areas.
5. Finally, wipe to wipe down the toilet (handle, lid, seat, bowl exterior).
6. Get out new hand towels.

My Nightly Kitchen Cleaning Routine (5-7 minutes): 

1. Wipe down counters, kitchen faucet, and soap dispenser (usually with soapy water from doing the dishes after dinner).
2. Wipe down appliance handles and cabinet knobs (especially the trash doorknob).
3. Put current hand towels and washcloths in the wash.
4. Get out new towels and washcloths for the next day.

My Weekly Cleaning & Disinfecting Routine: 

1. Give my children a disinfecting wipe and/or vinegar spray + a cloth and let them wipe down doorknobs and light switch plates throughout the house.
2. Wipe down phones, computer keyboards, tablets, and remote controls as necessary.

Related Reading:

• my favorite DIY cleaning products (it’s a huge list with all the recipes)
• 8 tips to simplify and speed up your weekly cleaning routine
• all my cleaning related posts

Again, my intentions are not to turn you into a germaphobe or make you nervous to be in your own home. 

Rather, I hope to share a bit of insight into a few really simple, doable ways you can drastically reduce the number of germs in your home. 

Take 3 to 5 minutes to tackle one of the germy spots listed above! Then tackle another spot tomorrow (you know the drill!)

What germy spots would you add to my list?