There’s a lot of weird stuff living in our homes

…at the University of Colorado contained DNA from 4,700 species of bacteria and 1,400 species of fungi. Which is crazy for a single dust sample, but even crazier because in total, more species of fungi were found in these samples than are known to exist in North America! Our homes truly have entire ecosystems of their own.⁠
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While of course some of these microbes may be harmful to our health, the vast majority of them are either neutral or beneficial to us. So keeping things clean is important, but over-sanitizing will kill the helpful bacteria, too. At worst, it can contribute to anti-bacterial resistance, which is why I'm VERY wary of the anti-microbial coatings in the home setting. ⁠
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On the other hand, there are several companies making home care products with probiotics. The idea is our homes are over-sanitized, and need to be replenished with beneficial microbes. There are air sprays, fabric fresheners, and counter cleansers made by fermenting "good bacteria" and adding essential oils. I think this is such a cool idea, and I'm really looking forward to more research being done on these.⁠
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In the meantime, I use a super-boring, all-purpose, plant-based cleanser for everything and trust my microbe friends are looking out for me 😆⁠
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The best sculpture by Roche Gaussen. Design by Pierre Yovanovitch.