Debunking the 5 Second Rule

How many times has food dropped on the floor and you see someone pick it up, quickly inspect it, pop it in their mouth and utter the phrase happily “5 second rule?”. Maybe you’ve even done it! Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but there’s no such thing as the 5 second rule saving you from consuming some pretty disgusting stuff.

Our surfaces aren’t just filled with dirt, they are also filled with dust mites, germs and bacteria as well as tons of chemicals from common household cleaners. All of which are quickly picked up by food before those 5 seconds are up!

Check out some of these fun facts about the stuff that covers the surfaces of your home and office:

• 18% to 30% of Americans are allergic to dust mites’ waste products
• Almost 50% of American homes have allergen levels that are high enough to cause sensitivity in people who were not previously allergic to dustmites
• A typical mattress may have 100,000 to 10 million dust mites inside it.
• 10% of the weight of a 2-year old pillow can be dead mites and their droppings.
• Dust mites eat the dead skin flakes of humans and animals.
• Humans shed about 1/5 ounce of dead skin flakes each week.
• About 80% of the material floating in sunbeam is flakes of dead skin.
• A University of Manchester study found 16 species of fungi in a single pillow. They found thousands of spores of fungus per gram of pillow – more than is found on an average used toothbrush.
• Drain in sink – typically home to more than 500,000 bacteria per square inch
• Sponges, rags, towels, scrubbies – roughly 70 percent harbor microbes like E. coli
• Staphylococcus bacteria was found in 26% of the tubs tested in a recent study.
• Whirlpools – Almost all showed bacteria from fecal matter; 81% had fungi, and 34% contained staph bacteria.
• In 2000, cleaning products were responsible for nearly 10% of all toxic exposures reported to U.S. Poison Control Centers, accounting for 206,636 calls.

I guess you can imagine that the best way to combat all this yuck is to keep your house spic and span. And one of those things is to have your floors and carpets  professionally cleaned on a regular basis seeing as how they attracts so much of these allergens. From rugs to mattresses, hardwood to bathroom tile, it’s important to keep these as clean as possible in order to keep the germs and junk at bay.

I recently had the pleasure of using ZeroRez steam cleaners to clean the rugs in my house. They are a fantastic eco-friendly and non-toxic steam cleaning company the uses alkalinized water only to steam clean!  It’s so pure, you can even drink it!

No soap, no chemicals, no residue! So it’s safe on all surfaces as well as for the whole family, including the furry members! And the service can be used quarterly to minimize the impact bacteria has inside your home.

As a Zerorez SoCal Ambassador, I get to share a special discount to my SoCal readers! 2 Areas for $99! You can make an appointment today by calling  866-937-6739 and using code VOYA02 to receive the special rate. It covers carpet, hardwood, tile and grout, and natural stone.

So, next time your food falls on the floor, feed the trash can with it, not yourself! Check this site to have more information about best steam mops on the market.