Keeping a clean home is no easy task. While many of us enjoy keeping our living spaces spotless, there are parts of the home which don't get the cleaning attention they deserve.
This can be due to forgetfulness, or even slight laziness, as most of us can admit to skipping a few areas to save time. But new research by leading carpet and flooring retailer Tapi has revealed just how much bacteria lives in these forgotten places.
By swabbing nine areas that Brits often forget to clean, Tapi has uncovered the grubbiest spots. Findings revealed that behind the sofa is the filthiest area in Brit homes, with over 10,000 bacteria found to be living between the cracks, despite a quarter of Brits claiming they clean this area every week.
This was determined by measuring of relative light units (RLU), a reading that indicates how much bacteria are living on surfaces. The higher the RLU, the dirtier the area.
Nine areas that are regularly cleaned were also swabbed to reveal the cleanest places at home. Check out full list below.
The five dirtiest areas in Brit homes
Rank |
Item |
RLU |
1 |
Behind sofa |
10,932 |
2 |
Under the doormat |
6,669 |
3 |
Behind toilets |
6,032 |
4 |
Behind the TV unit |
4,101 |
5 |
Behind the bed |
3,930 |
The five cleanest areas in Brit homes
With the dirty stuff is out of the way, it's worth mentioning the areas that are the most spotless. Flooring came out as the cleanest part of the home.
This in part as Brits tend to clean their floors more regularly, as 34% say they clean their kitchen floor two to three times a week, with 23% cleaning their bedroom floor, 32% cleaning their living room floor, 29% the hallway floor and 23% the bathroom floor two to three times per week also.
Rank |
Item |
RLU |
1 |
Kitchen floor |
61 |
2 |
Bedroom floor/carpet |
257 |
3 |
Living room floor/carpet |
471 |
4 |
Hallway floor/carpet |
480 |
5 |
Bathroom floor |
914 |
Johanna Constantinou, brand and communications director at Tapi, said: “We all know how important it is to clean our homes thoroughly, but it’s interesting to find that in our research the areas that Brits claim are cleaning weekly, are in fact the dirtiest! It’s important to make sure Brits are taking extra care to clean these most-forgotten areas to reduce the number of bacteria living in their home.
"It’s also interesting to see that Brits’ flooring are in fact the cleanest area in the home, in part because they are more regularly cleaned on a day-to-day basis.”
