Time to UNclean: Are Your Cleaning Habits Making Your Kitchen Even Dirtier?

Try-It Tuesdays: 

This is a sponsored post written by me on the behalf of Bounty DuraTowel. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

When you clean up your kitchen do you use a:
A) Sponge
B) Dish Rag
C) Paper Towel

If you said A or B, you might be in for a big surprise. Some cleaning habits may actually be making your kitchen dirtier and more harmful for your family.

Bounty DuraTowel is challenging you to to re-examine the way you tackle your cleaning. While many moms work hard at scrubbing, organizing and wiping their way to a seemingly “cleaner” home for their family, there may still be a few messes lurking behind.

So, how clean is the average consumer’s kitchen? The CDC estimates each year roughly 1 in 6 Americans (48 million people) get sick from a foodborne illness. To help stop the spread of germs, stick with the six tips below and kitchen surfaces will soon have a few less germs hanging around.

1. The dishcloth has a dirty little secret: One of the germiest places in the kitchen rests in the palm of your hand. A dishcloth can harbor millions of germs after just one day’s use. Don’t spread bacteria around your kitchen!

2. The gift that keeps on giving: The E. coli bacteria can survive for days, even months on kitchen surfaces like countertops and cutting boards. Be sure to use separate cutting boards for meat, vegetables and fish and disinfect them regularly.

3. Cut the crap: The average cutting board has 200% more fecal bacteria than the average toilet seat. That’s more than enough reason to disinfect regularly.

4. Just nuke it? Studies show in order to keep your sponge germ-free, you have to nuke it in the microwave for at least 2 minutes after each use, which is just more work. By using a disposable paper towel like DuraTowel, the surface is left three times cleaner than a dishcloth.

The kitchen is a source of hidden germs: Did you miss a spot? According to a recent NSF International study, the Top 5 Germiest Areas in the kitchen include:

1. Refrigerator vegetable compartment: Salmonella, Listeria, yeast & mold. 
2. Refrigerator meat compartment: Salmonella, E. coli, yeast and mold. 
3. Blender gasket: Salmonella, E. coli, yeast and mold. 
4. Can opener: Salmonella, E. coli, yeast and mold. 
5. Rubber spatula: E. coli, yeast and mold.

Health and hygiene experts agree that paper towels are the best bet for preventing the cross contamination of kitchen surfaces, particularly when it comes to reducing the bacteria left behind from food-prep and more.

“To use a paper towel to clean up messes and then to throw it away, especially on surfaces in your kitchen where you’ve been preparing food is the ideal thing to do,” said Dr. Elizabeth Scott, founder and co-director of the Simmons Center for Hygiene and Community Settings at Simmons College in Boston. “Dishcloths should be not be used for wiping up surfaces to cut down on the potential for cross contamination.”

Bounty’s newest paper towel product, DuraTowel, a cloth-like paper towel designed to replace germy dishcloths. Thick and strong, even when wet, a single sheet of Bounty DuraTowel is durable enough to tackle tough jobs like cleaning countertops, sinks and even small appliances, making it the go-to tool for spring cleaning. Thanks to its fiber-rich design, Bounty DuraTowel offers consumers a cloth-like experience without compromising on clean. Bounty DuraTowel helps leaves your kitchen surfaces cleaner than a germy dishcloth.

“Many people think that their family’s kitchen is clean after wiping up with a dishcloth, but surfaces may be hiding a dirty little secret, said Gregg Weaver, Procter & Gamble research and development engineer for Bounty. “In P&G lab demonstrations, black lights reveal that even after rinsing, used dishcloths can still harbor germs and drag them around. Grabbing a sheet of Bounty DuraTowel gives a cleaner alternative to a used dishcloth.” 

Bounty DuraTowel retails for $3.19 and is available at food and grocery as well as mass retailers nationwide. More information on DuraTowel as well as the entire Bounty product family can be found at www.bountytowels.com.

This post also appears on the Star-Telegram's Mom2Momdfw.com.