Tips That Will Help Keep Your Kitchen Germ-Free

To help you keep up with the clean, we enlisted the support of Laurie Brown, a green cleaning expert and chief sales officer of Earthstone International, a purveyor of household cleaning and sanding productrs, to give you some great and useful tips. Learn how to dispel germs by following this advice.

"Use hard plastic cutting sheets instead of wood cutting boards to more easily remove germs after each use. Just wash with dish soap and rinse with water. Super easy and effective."

"Keep sinks clean! Use Magic Eraser or microfiber products to clean around the sink drain and garbage disposal as a way to more effectively remove food scum and germ-laden residue. Ninety-nine point nine percent of bacteria can be removed by agitation, and super absorbent fibers and materials do a superior job — without the chemicals."

"Do not rinse chicken or other meat before cooking. It just spreads germs, and it doesn't make it more delicious."

"Regularly clean refrigerator  coils and make sure to set your refrigerator between 37 degrees F (3 C) and 40 degrees F (5 degrees C) to ensure healthy food."

"Place old vegetables in compost pail designed with a lid and set  outside to store between uses. Better to compost than throw rotting fruits and vegetables in the garbage or disposal, where they create indoor compost in your kitchen. And it's good food for your garden, too."

"Keep parchment paper at bottom of produce drawers, making occasional clean-up quick and easy and avoiding lettuce and carrots that are so 'alive with bacteria' they are ready to march out of the fridge."

"Toss scrubbers that are clogged with food residue and grease. Steel wool and nylon scrubbies are a major source of bacteria, which can clog the scrubber's surface, making it difficult, if not impossible, to really get

clean."

"Put drain and garbage disposal covers in the dishwasher occasionally to clean and remove germs."

"Wash dish rags and sponges at least once or twice weekly. A little bleach in your dishrags will keep them looking good AND help disinfect, and you can wash your sponges in the dishwasher or place in the microwave (wet) for two minutes on high. Make sure there is no metal in the product."