Ladies, you may not want to read this if you’re eating…

Before we go into this feature, we want to run a question past you first. When was the last time you cleaned out your handbag, and we don’t mean transferring items into another tote we mean when did you actually ‘clean’ it?

According to a recent study, only 33 per cent of women admitted to having never cleaned their purse, which is worrying when other studies reveal that our precious totes can contain more bacteria than a toilet seat.

That’s right the dirtiest place in your house is cleaner than the insides of your handbag (if you don’t clean it).

handbag

How often do you clean your bag?

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To put this into perspective, and just to gross you out even more, according to the Hygiene factbook, 10,000 bacteria can be found on just a few square centimetres of your handbag. From this amount, 30  per cent of the bacteria are faecal ones (we told you you shouldn’t read this while eating).

Now we’ve sufficiently made you regret not looking after your bag from the outside in follow our tips below for a more hygienic lifestyle.

Four easy tips to keep your handbag clean

1.

To make sure your handbags are clean, first wash your hands, then wipe the handbags with alcohol free wipes that can be easily found at any pharmacy. From time to time, empty your purse and shake it to get the larger pieces of dirt, after use a brush or lint roller to grab the most resistant crumbs.

2.

Careful where you place your bag! Avoid contaminating it by leaving it on the floor (specially bathroom floors!). And when storing the bag, make sure you place them in the dust bag they came or in a pillowcase, so you can protect the bag and avoid cross contamination.

3.

Pay extra attention to clean your hands before grabbing things in your handbag. Wash or disinfect your hands first and then touch the interior, specially if you been touching different surfaces or coming from public places like trains and buses.

4.

If you want to make it extra tidy, you can make baking soda sachets and keep in your handbag to get rid of any unpleasant odour.

*Top four tips supplied by Helping a convenient cleaning and household service company 

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Images: Getty