By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER
Published: 12:25 BST, 8 August 2026 | Updated: 12:25 BST, 8 August 2026
You might think your home is spick and span, but a day in the life of this microbiologist puts even the most houseproud person to shame.
Dr Primrose Freestone is associate professor of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Leicester, and could well be Britain's cleanest woman.
As an expert on all the germs hiding in our homes, she takes absolutely no chances when it comes to keeping her house sparkling clean.
However, some people might find her cleaning methods to be a touch extreme.
From ironing her towels daily and only using sponges once, to avoiding live yoghurt for fear of bacterial infection, her life is as close to microbe–free as possible.
Dr Freestone even goes so far as to wash her toothbrush with hand sanitiser to keep the bacteria at bay.
To find out more, the Daily Mail asked Dr Freestone to take us through a typical day in the life of a microbiologist.
She told the Daily Mail: 'Once I realised what is growing in us and on us, my first reaction was "yuck"'.
Dr Primrose Freestone is associate professor of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Leicester, and could well be Britain's cleanest woman
Like most people, Dr Freestone's day starts by attending to her own personal hygiene with a nice refreshing shower.
'Technically the body only needs to be washed once every other day,' Dr Freestone told the Daily Mail.
'But if you are quite precious about your hygiene you do actually need to have a good wash every day.'
However, this is where Dr Freestone's habits start to make the average person seem positively grubby.