How to create a healthy 'germier' home

Exposure to a broad range of microbes can enhance our immune system, especially during childhood

Photo collage of a blueprint of a home, including microscope photos of germs and microorganisms in the blueprint.
(Image credit: Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images)

House-proud types may find this hard to process but "germier" homes can actually be great for our health.

Although some bacteria and viruses are clearly bad news, the "vast majority of these microbes are harmless or actually beneficial", said The Washington Post, so some families are taking steps to welcome them through their doors.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.