The filthiest part of your bathroom is not your toilet

• Your towel rack and radiator are full of germs, according to a new survey.
• Toilets aren’t the dirtiest since they are cleaned frequently.
• Since bathrooms are damp spaces, they can be breeding grounds for microorganisms and bacteria.

The dirtiest spot in your bathroom isn’t your sink and it’s not your toilet — it’s where you hang your towels.

Your bathroom radiator and towel rack are where bacteria are nestled most abundantly, as these spots tend to be passed up when people clean, according to a new study.

The survey, conducted by electric heating specialiss Rointe, polled 1,000 adults about their bathroom cleaning routine to find that while things like toilet seats are cleaned the most, towel racks and radiators are cleaned far less frequently.

Why are towel railings so gross?

Towel railings simply go unnoticed: 11% of participants said they clean them once a month. As for radiators, only 17% said they clean them, while another 7% admitted they never clean their radiators.

The folks at Rointe swabbed five bathrooms for bacteria to see where the grossness lives. Using color-changing swabs to see bacteria levels, they found that 60% of towel rails and radiators had a dark purple color, signifying a “really dirty” area.

Commonly used areas like toilet seats and sinks were cleaned the most frequently. More than a third said they clean their toilet seat daily, while 29% scrub down their sink each day. For comparison, only 10% of toilets tested registered the same dark purple color in the swab tests. A quarter of them were actually deemed clean.

Despite COVID-19 once again forcing everyone to clean their towels daily, that doesn’t remain the case with most people. About 35% of participants said they wash them once per week.

“Bathroom radiators and towel rails should be cleaned at least three times per month,” Antoaneta Tsocheva, founder of FastKlean, a cleaning service, in a statement. “Ideally, you would add your entire bathroom to your weekly cleaning routine. This will allow you to keep the germs at bay and make your cleaning sessions shorter on average. … On top of the usual suspects like dust, grime, mold, and mildew, you also need to think about germs and bacteria — the bathroom itself is a damp environment and so are the towels you hang on your radiator or rail. It’s the ideal environment for microorganisms and bacteria — things you definitely don’t want near your face.”

Spreading the germs

Considering one in six people participate in work-related conference calls on the toilet, it’s safe to assume that those germs in the bathroom could follow your phone and other services.

To eliminate germs, wash your hands frequently. You can also disinfect your home by cleaning surfaces and other high-touch areas, such as table surfaces and handles. These can be done with disinfecting wipes or sprays.

More on Home:

• This is how many people actually do Zoom calls from the bathroom
• The most germ-infested item in your home office (by far)
• New findings about catching COVID-19 in public restrooms