Approximately one in 10 people in the UK have admitted to not cleaning parts of their homes in more than a year, according to a new survey.

The survey commissioned by Febreze Fabric Refresher found that the most neglected places in people’s cleaning routines are behind and under furniture, inside drawers and curtains.

UCD Institute of Food and Health Microbiologist and Food Biotechnologist, Associate Professor Dr Amalia Scannell, told The Hard Shoulder we should be more thorough with our cleaning.

Dr Scannell explained that people need to be exposed to a certain amount of bacteria “in order to kick your immune system off” but the fabrics that we aren’t cleaning are the “real problem”.

“Particularly when children are young, if they're exposed to normal bacteria, we're not talking pathogens here, we're talking just bacteria that are everywhere, then they're healthier children, and they don't get things like asthma,” she said.

Germs in your fabrics

Dr Scannell said we don’t need to be “very clean” but the problems with sofas and curtains come “largely if you're sick or if you have somebody sick coming to your house”.

“So if somebody is bringing germs into your home, then what's going to happen is they're going to spread around the places people move in the air and all of that, they'll get stuck in the fabric,” she said.

“Somebody else coming along and sitting down will then pick up those germs and likely will get infected.

“Now, the chances of somebody really crawling under that sofa that hasn't been cleaned for two years is probably small, because it's likely that it hasn't been cleaned because it hasn't been moved.

“So would I worry about that? What the eyes don't see the tummy don't feel, sometimes.”

Dr Scannell said the most important places to be cleaning are places like inside cabinets and drawers in the kitchen and bathrooms.

“As well as the gunk that you'll get in those drawers, what you'll also find is you might start getting mites, and you might start getting little moths, and those are kind of not very hygienic in your kitchen,” she said.

"Wipe, throw and move"

The microbiologist also suggested using tissues over hand towels or hand dryers.

“If you're in a new place you're likely to pick up germs your body hasn't an immunity to,” she said.

“And some of those germs might be okay, but some of them might cause you to be a little bit upset, or, in fact, frankly, sick.

“I think paper towels are probably the best because you can wipe, throw and move.”

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Young woman cleaning room. Image: Prostock-studio / Alamy Stock Photo