EAST HARTFORD, Conn. -- Home sweet home: it's fair to say that most people enjoy coming home, especially after a hard day's work.

But what if your house is making you sick?

Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Kara Sundlun and the Bruening family, of East Hartford, put a Connecticut home to the test to find out where the germs are, and how to clean more efficiently in less time.

"I would say that we are the average family that works and has children," Sherry Bruening said.

With limited time to clean, Eyewitness News went to task to find out whether the germs are by taking samples of just about every surface using a cotton swab, including the refrigerator door handle, to the guest bathroom's toilet handle, to the cutting board and, yes, even the kitchen sink.

Also under test included cleaning sponges, a hand towel and the toothbrushes. After taking the samples to a lab, the results were returned.

And The Lab Results Say

The highest number of bacteria found in the test amounted to 200 million, which was found on the scrubbing sponge in the kitchen sink.

"We wash our dishes with that," Bruening said.

A regular sponge outside the kitchen carried 66 million bacteria, including coliform, which can indiate fecal matter.

Sundlun said that if your family is like the Bruenings, your sponges are probably some of the dirtiest things around the house. To kill most of the bacteria, you can run the sponge through a dishwasher cycle.

Engineering researchers at the University of Florida released findings last month that indicate microwaving sponges for two minutes killed more than 99 percent of bacteria, viruses or parasites and spores on a kitchen sponge. Water boils at 212 degrees, well above the 170-degree temperature at which bacteria dies.

The results also indicated a significant amount of bacteria living in the kitchen sink.

"The troubling thing with the kitchen sink, it's the only place they found levels of E coli," Sundlun told the Bruenings.

Though the results may have surprised the Bruenings a bit, E coli is everywhere and the sink is like a petri dish where it can grow because germs love moisture and food.

Let's Leave The Kitchen For A Bit

Outside the kitchen, the most alarming number of bacteria was found in the guest bathroom's hand towel, which needs a trip to the washer because it contains 76 million bacteria with 50,000 coliform found.

The test also monitored how much bacteria escapes after flushing the toilet, with the lid down and up. The lab working with Eyewitness News confirmed that leaving the toilet lid up leads to double the bacteria, some of which made it all the way to the toothbrushes.

As for the toothbrushes, the test found that one of the brushes actually had more germs than the guest bathroom's toilet handle.

Do Household Germs Really Hurt?

Emergency room officials at Hartford Hospital told Eyewitness News that household germs can indeed cause illness, including germs like staphylococcus, which can cause infections.

The experts have an important recommendation for everyone: wash your hands well and often.

Sundlun reported that you don't need to spend a fortune on fancy cleaning products, but using a product that is labeled as a disinfectant in high-germ areas, like the kitchen, is a good idea.

Link: EPA Letter About Product Labels and "Germs"

Additionally, the experts recommend using a paper towel to clean counters, not a sponge.

In Part 2 of Kara Sundlun's two-part special series about germs, Eyewitness News uncovers which is dirtier: The mall or your house. Watch Eyewitness News for this special series.

Click here to e-mail newstips to Eyewitness News, or dial toll-free: 866-289-0333. Be sure to stay with WFSB.com and Channel 3 Eyewitness News for the latest health news updates.