The Germy Fridge Spot You're Definitely Touching Every Day And Probably Rarely Clean

It may not be a pleasant thing to think about, but the kitchen is one of the dirtiest rooms in your home, and that's especially true of your fridge. Outside of your bathroom, there is no spot in your home that is coming in contact with more items carrying germs, from meat and unwashed vegetables, and old, moldy bread or condiments. And as the place that stores most of your perishables, the fridge gets it worst of all. Even in a cold environment, bacteria can take hold, with packages of raw meat leaking juices and rotting produce hiding at the bottom of crisper drawers. If you take cleaning your kitchen seriously, you should be giving your fridge a good, thorough cleaning every few weeks, but even for people who are on top of cleaning, there is one dirty spot that often gets overlooked: The underside of your fridge door handle.

Kitchen door knobs and handles in general are real germ magnets. Every person in your family is grabbing them all the time, but compared to large, obvious surfaces where you can see stains and dirt accumulating, the backs of them are small and out of sight. The fridge door handle doesn't just see this constant action, but is also something you are probably grabbing a lot in the middle of cooking as you rush back and forth looking for ingredients, rarely stopping to wash your hands until you clean up at the end of your prep.

You don't need to be constantly cleaning your kitchen door handles, but they should always be included in your standard cleaning rotation, and ideally wiped down more often than most other spots. This means cleaning them each time you clean your kitchen counter and other high-traffic areas. Handles don't need to be cleaned deeply each time, but wiping them down with some warm, soapy water when cleaning after cooking a meal is a good way to stay on top of it. It also helps to avoid doing things like hanging wet towels from your fridge door handle, as that can cause them to accumulate extra germs.

While you should be aware of how dirty your refrigerator door handle can get, it doesn't require any special cleaners. Basic all-purpose cleaners are more than enough, just make sure they are disinfectants, as you want to get the germs that are probably growing on the handle. When doing a deeper clean of your kitchen, it's best to go with something a little stronger, ideally a product containing bleach. Or you can make your own bleach solution by mixing 1 tablespoon of bleach with 1 gallon of water, which you should already be doing to clean other areas like your sink. You don't need to be overly worried about your fridge door handle; just don't make the easy mistake of forgetting it while you clean.