What's the Dirtiest Thing in The Bathroom? Nope, It's Not the Toilet

The bathrooms in the house serve as the comfort rooms where people can relax while soaking in the bathtub or relieve themselves while answering the call of nature. Indeed, it is one of the dirtiest places in the house so constant cleaning is needed.

However, no matter how much you clean a bathroom, there is this feeling that it is not as clean as it should be. Most of the time, toilets are perceived as the dirtiest thing in the bathroom, but there is actually something inside the bathroom that is dirtier, BGR reported.

SafeHome conducted a small-scale experiment wherein they took swab tests of the objects inside the bathroom and discovered that shower is dirtier than the toilet in terms of overall germ count. It blows away the toilet when it comes to germ count as it did not win by a narrow margin.

Dirtiest Thing In The Bathroom

The researchers checked for the colony-forming units (CFU) present in the objects inside the bathroom to tell which one is the dirtiest. Their experiment showed shocking results wherein the toilet seat does not even come close to the shower curtain or shower floor.

The swab tests revealed that toilet seat hosts 235,000 CFUs while shower floor swabs revealed 15.8 million CFUs. However, the shower curtain has more CFUs with 16.2 million based on small sample size.

Their survey revealed that majority of the 500 participants admitted peeing in the shower wherein 81% of them are men and 73% of women; not to mention 61% who admitted making love in the shower. Additionally, they also said that they shave and brush their teeth in the shower.

With all these activities, it is expected that people should clean their shower often, but on average, women only cleans the shower four times a month while men do it, on average, 2.8 times a month.

But do you know that toilet is still not the dirtiest thing in the bathroom? The shower curtain and shower floor may be the dirtiest places in the bathroom, but the toothbrush is the dirtiest thing, more specifically its handle. The swab test showed that toothbrush has 12.6 million CFUs beating the faucet handle that only has 56,000 CFUS and the 13,000 CFUs of the interior door handle.

Myth About Toilet Seats

In a report by ABC News, Allison Janse, the author of "The Germ Freak's Guide to Outwitting Colds and Flu" said that the hands are more likely to catch bacteria than when sitting on a public toilet seat.

Her co-author, Dr Charles Gerba, said that the floor is usually the dirtiest with 2 million bacteria per square inch which is 200 times higher than a sanitary surface. He added that they tested the sink and the toilet seat and found that these places are unexpectedly clean, with the toilet sink ranking as the cleanest spot so far.

According to Gerba, a sanitary surface has no more than 1,000 bacteria per square inch that is something clean enough to eat off. Surprisingly, the toilet seat passed the test.

"No matter how often you hear that, you know, it's safer to eat your turkey wrap off the toilet seat than your desktop at work, you're just not going to believe it," Janse said.