Even if you regularly sweep, dust, mop and hoover your home, your house may not be as germ-free and sparkling as you think. There are lots of dirty things in your home that you probably haven't been cleaning (and probably didn't think you ever needed to!).
Let's start with the bedroom: While duvet covers and pillowcases get washed regularly, duvets and feather pillows don't get cleaned despite being breeding grounds for dust mites, bacteria, fungal spores and bed bugs, according to research from Johnsons Cleaners.
In fact, their survey of over 2,000 men and women in the UK found that 36% of people were more likely to toss their duvet and buy a new one instead of bothering to get their current one cleaned, while 71% of respondents weren't sure how to clean a feather pillow.
Huffington Post UK chatted to the experts at Hassle.com, the website that matches busy working professionals with local trusted cleaners (in London, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Dublin) about 9 things in our house we never clean (either because we didn't know how to clean them properly or know we should be cleaning them at all) and learned about some unexpected germ-carriers in the home.
Did you know that there are apparently 10 million bacteria per square inch on a kitchen sponge (making them 200,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat?). Have you ever bothered to clean your light switches (despite grimy fingers touching them about 20 times a day?)
Most unpleasant? "Research suggests there are roughly 200 times more faecal bacteria on the average cutting board than on a toilet seat – eww!," says Paul Lewis, marketing director at Hassle.com.
Click through the slideshow below to see which 9 dirty things in your home you probably haven't been cleaning, with expert tips on how to clean them quickly and efficiently from the pros at Hassle.com.