the hardware pulls in your kitchen & Hidden Bacteria

Everyone likes to think of their kitchen as a place that is the home for great gourmet meals that are lovingly made from scratch by the cook of the family. But another thing you should be thinking of your kitchen as is a home for germs and bacteria to breed in all sorts of places that you may not have ever considered!

In this article we are going to focus on all the hardware pulls in your kitchen and that they may be doing more than helping you get into your pantry.

In this case the 'more' that the hardware pulls are doing is also being a home for bacteria and germs. There are a number of ways germs can get on and in your hardware pulls:

Hands - The most common way germs and bacteria will get onto your hardware pulls is through hands that are grabbing a hold of them. Whatever is on the hands that touch the pulls is immediately transferred to the surface. Many people who think about this think, 'but I wash my hands before I start cooking'. While that may be true, that does not counter any of the other hands that have been on those pulls before you. If someone was in earlier in the day, had not washed their hands, and transferred germs to the pulls, your clean hands are now picking up those germs and about to transfer them into your meal.

Drips - It always happens. You're cutting up raw chicken on the cutting board, perhaps even one that has a 'drain area' made to catch meat juices, but a little bit drips off the cutting board, onto the counter, off the edge and right onto your drawer pull. When you try to wipe it up you think you have it all, but you can't see those microscopic drips that may still be there just waiting to make your family sick.

Spills - It never fails. When you are quickly moving around the kitchen trying to get things together for a meal you are going to knock something over. No matter how hard you try to clean up that spill, you are not going to get it all. That is one of the problems with liquid. While you may have thought you got it all off the surface of the drawer pulls, take a look at where the pull connects to the drawer. Even a pinpoint amount of space between the drawer and the pull can be enough for some of that spill to seep inside and be a breeding ground for bacteria.

While you can't always stop the things that will put bacteria and germs on your drawer pulls from happening, you can try to prevent the spread of any of it. Make sure to regularly clean the drawer pulls and not just wipe them off. You need to remove them from the drawer and clean inside where some of the mess may have seeped as well.