How often to clean everything you own, from your toilet to your phone, according to science

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Humans do not live in our homes alone. There are approximately 7,000 different species of bacteria floating around in your house right now. And that's just in the dust.

The rich and complex web of dirt, viruses, and pollen floating around us isn't all bad. It's important to keep some microbes around to help us stay healthy and strong. Plus, you could say that microbes are the reason you're alive today — after all, ancient anaerobic bacteria came well before oxygen-breathing creatures, and thrived as some of the first life on Earth.

Still, it's best to keep microbe levels in check inside your house. Some household items need a good wipe-down every day, while others do best when we scrub or sweep them once a week or every few months.

Here's the perfect house-cleaning regimen to keep everything you own safe and squeaky-clean, without going insane.

Your sponge is one of the grossest things you own. Microbiologists say you should replace it once a week.

The warm, moist environment inside a sponge is a delightful spot for bacteria to grow.

Microwaving or boiling sponges won't sterilize them — it'll only kill about 60% of the bacteria they're hosting. Bleaching a sponge is more effective, and a solution with 10% household bleach and 90% water solution should do the trick.

Tasting Table suggests that you can bleach a kitchen dish sponge after week one and relegate it to countertop-wiping duties, then bleach it again after week two and move it to bathroom polishing. Bleach is strong enough to kill anthrax spores, and it's always good to bleach a sponge after it comes into contact with raw meat or vegetables.

Your phone should get a daily wipe down.

Smartphones are with us nearly every waking moment. They often come into the bathroom and fall on the ground. They sit in our palms at almost every stage of the day, regardless of where our hands have been or how clean they are — and then we nestle the phones next to our ears.

It's no surprise, then, that smartphones can pick up E. coli and Streptococcus bugs along the way. A phone can easily be dirtier than a toilet seat. So most infectious disease experts, like Philip Tierno, a microbiologist and pathologist at the New York University School of Medicine, suggest giving it a wipe at the end of the day.

You can use a wet wipe or a gentle microfiber cloth. For extra cleaning power, add a 50/50 solution of water and vinegar to a corner of the cloth.

We spend around a third of our life rolling around in our sheets. Science says washing them every week is best.

Our beds are wonderful places for life to thrive. Skin cells, lotions, powders, and oils on our skin, as well as little crumbs of food, all contribute to a germy, microbial soup of growing filth that we sleep with every night.

Change your sheets once a week to keep the dirt levels in check, as Tierno suggests.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider