Quick Tip: Clean Flu Fostering Places to Banish Bad Bacteria [Health]

Quick Tip: Clean Flu Fostering Places to Banish Bad Bacteria [Health]: From LifeHacker

Flu season is in full swing, and we're all 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon away from contracting some form of pork virus. Even if you keep your home spic and span, there's still a chance you might have missed some easy-to-overlook spots.

Photo by DanBrady

During cold and flu season, it helps to take a few extra precautions so we don't end up like one of the 20+ people on our Facebook pages plagued with the flu. It can be easy to keep common surfaces like counter tops and floors tidy, but what about those out of place nooks and crannies? Here's a few to be on the lookout for.

1. Personal Hygiene Bottles: Although we all brush our teeth and wash our hands multiple times a day, when was the last time you wiped down your hand soap bottle, or your tube of toothpaste? They are often touched, but rarely washed!

2. Car Interiors: For those across the country that aren't blessed to live in a city with working mass transportation, it can often feel as if you're living in your car at times, scooting back and forth between work and play. Even if you keep things tidy, giving the hard surfaces in your vehicle a once over is a smart move. Don't forget the little places, like underneath the doorhandles, the lock and window buttons, and the steering wheel column.

3. Electronics: Even though most of us are already cleaning our electronics in our daily or weekly routines, take extra care to include things like the buttons on your remote controls or those on your dvd player. Places like keyboards and scroll wheels on your cell phone are also tight spaces, try using a cotton swab to help out.

4. Hardware: Things like handles, pulls, and knobs in your home get a great deal of action. There's more than you think throughout your home, try wiping down the pulls to the cabinets in your kitchen and bathroom and doorknobs throughout your space. They are all places you touch frequently.

5. Appliances: Most of us use our appliances on a fairly regular basis. Take extra care to clean the handles or pulls on things that see a great deal of use, like the lid or door to your washing machine, or the handle to your refrigerator or coffee pot.

Still, if you're looking to keep healthy and prevent the spread of diseases like the flu, washing your hands is still numero uno. That said, what places in your home do you take extra precautions with when the flu is running rampant? Do you just keep up with your normal routine, or kick it into high gear? Share your tips in the comments.