Your kitchen sink is dirtier than most toilets: doctor explains how to clean it properly

You clean your toilet regularly. You scrub your bathroom and your hand basin. But there's one place in your home that's likely filthier than any porcelain bowl. Unfortunately, you probably have no idea about it. You think it's squeaky clean, but it’s not. The place in question is your kitchen sink. According to Dr Tania Elliott, a board-certified internal medicine specialist and allergist based in New York, the kitchen sink is grimier than most toilets. In a recent viral Instagram video, she revealed a startling fact: “There’s more faecal matter in your kitchen sink than in a toilet after it’s flushed.”

Your kitchen sink is a breeding ground for bacteria

The kitchen sink may look innocent, but that’s not an accurate representation of what’s happening there. Every time you prepare food, rinse produce, or wash your hands, you're introducing pathogens into your sink. Raw meat washed in the sink leaves behind E. coli. Vegetable scraps in the sink can harbour more harmful bacteria than your toilet basin. Soap residue, along with moisture, creates a perfect environment for microorganisms to thrive.

Your sink could be dirtier than your toilet. Here’s why. You flush the toilet every time you use it. You also treat it with cleaning chemicals regularly. Your kitchen sink, on the other hand, is sometimes warm, sometimes moist, and sometimes in between. It’s practically a biological Petri dish.

And you place your clean dishes next to the sink. You probably rest your hands on its rim. Basically, you are transferring these bacteria to your body, and eventually to the food you consume, leading to foodborne illnesses and infections.

A simple fix

Now that you know how dirty the kitchen sink is, you certainly need a solution. Guess what? You don’t need expensive commercial cleaners or harsh chemicals to clean your kitchen sink. Dr Elliott swears by a simple two-ingredient method: baking soda and vinegar. “Sanitise it weekly. I use baking soda and vinegar,” she said. That’s right, these kitchen staples can keep your sink clean and also get rid of any germs. “Don’t combine baking soda and vinegar for cleaning. Use one first, then the other,” the doctor said. Here’s what you can do. Sprinkle baking soda generously across your sink surface and scrub thoroughly with a brush. Now rinse well with hot water. Pour some vinegar over the sink and let it sit for a few minutes. Scrub again, then rinse completely. There you have it – a squeaky-clean sink.

Sponge – the dirtiest item next to your sink

Cleaning the kitchen sink alone won’t solve the problem. Here’s an uncomfortable truth. Your kitchen sponge may look innocent, but it is the dirtiest item in your entire kitchen. “Throw it away. It stinks. There’s no real way to clean it, and it’s one of the dirtiest things in your kitchen,” the doctor said.


Instead, she suggests using Swedish dishcloths. After cleaning the dishes, you can toss them in the dishwasher. These dishcloths are highly absorbent, durable, and reusable. Most importantly, they actually get clean if you wash them.