Q: How often should you wash your tea towels (and your bin lid and dish cloths) ? A: Every DAY!

. . . just some of the experts’ unnerving house-cleaning rules that will make you question everything about your home hygiene

LIVING in a spotlessly clean home appeals to many, but lacking time — and energy — can mean that some chores don’t get done as often as we’d like. Including, it seems, even changing our bed linen.

A recent survey found that barely a quarter of UK adults change their sheets every week, with one in four leaving their bed linen unwashed for at least three or four weeks.

But would such chore-dodging have an impact on our health? How often do you really need to wash stuff?

‘It really depends on how many people live in your home and how dirty clothes, products or surfaces get,’ says Lisa Ackerley, visiting professor in environmental health at the University of Salford.

‘In general, we do need to think about practising good, targeted hygiene — that is, to know when to act and where specific germs may be coming from. So concentrate on cleaning and disinfecting those areas that may be harbouring harmful germs — kitchen worktops, where raw chicken has been prepared, for example, whereas floors can be cleaned normally.’

However, the important things to target aren’t always obvious jobs, such as cleaning the loo (which doesn’t need doing as often as you might think).

For example, when was the last time you washed your child’s teddy bear? If you’re struggling to remember (or know for certain that the answer is never), experts suggest this is done once a month, as stuffed toys can be a repository for dust mites — a source of allergy in many children.

The advice is either to put the teddy into a dishwasher or washing machine at 60c, where the high temperatures will kill the mites. Or, if you fear damaging the toy in such a hot wash, put it in the freezer overnight to kill bugs, then wash at a low temperature to physically remove dead mites.

Here, we ask experts to reveal the other cleaning jobs they think you really can’t afford to skip . . .