It’s no good to obsess over all the bad things that could happen to us, not when we have sharp knives in every kitchen and travel 60 miles per hour down every highway. But at the same time, we shouldn’t invite dangers into our home when we could easily live without them. The following home issues could be making you sick, but you can also do things to prevent them.

Dirty Refrigerator Shelves

There’s a lot of food and a lot of moisture in your refrigerator. That makes it a prime breeding ground for mold, and the reason we keep food cold is to stop mold from breeding out of control and spoiling our produce and leftovers. So if you stay organized, eat everything you buy, and use up your leftovers, you won’t have to worry about mold.

But what about the refrigerator shelves themselves? Even small spills and stains can breed mold and bacteria, making your refrigerator more dangerous and less useful at preserving food. Make sure you clean your fridge regularly, both to clean out forgotten foods and remove stains and crumbs.

Dust Mites

Dust mites are microscopic arachnids that survive by eating strands of hair and flakes of shed skin. Dust mites aren’t responsible for any diseases themselves, but humans can develop an allergy to the waste they leave behind. You can’t get rid of dust mites completely, but if you have a dust allergy, you should wash your bedsheets weekly, vacuum your carpets and furniture, and do other things to keep the mite population down. You shouldn’t expect to reach zero mites, but doing this gets rid of the waste that sets off your allergy.

Cleaning Products

Depending on what you use and how you use it, your cleaning products could be a bigger problem than the dust and stains you’re wiping up. You won’t see any major problems unless you get something seriously caustic on your skin or somehow manage to get some in your mouth, but if you clean regularly you should take the right precautions. Use thick rubber gloves that go past your wrist, always make sure the room has plenty of ventilation, and don’t use anything stronger than what the job requires.

Central Air

Central air keeps your whole home comfortable so you don’t need to huddle near a window air conditioner, but in exchange it puts a lot of open-air ducts behind the walls and in the ceiling. Dust, dust mites, and mold can settle in these ducts and can be almost impossible to clean out, spreading spores and dust allergens into every room no matter how much you clean. Central air systems use dehumidifiers to keep the air dry and minimize mold growth, but it can help to add extra air purification systems to your ducts or to your bedroom.

Worrying about things that could make us sick doesn’t help. However, there’s a lot you can do to make your home safer without putting in more effort than you need to.