It was scary last year when the study came out revealing that tea tree essential oil could act like estrogen in our bodies, and may even cause enlarged breasts in young boys. That's been debunked; the possibility is that other ingredients in the products are more likely to blame. With all of the toxic chemicals in our body care products, it seems the more likely culprit.

That said, it really is OK to use tea tree oil is a safe way: properly diluted in a carrier oil, never internally, and always moderately. In fact, it is one of the essential oils you should keep in the house, as it has many healthy uses:

• heals cold sores and warts
• calms coughs
• helps clear up breakouts
• combats nail fungus
• disinfects your house when added to cleaning products

There are more uses for tea tree oil in the original DIY Life post, so don't fear the natural goodness of tea tree oil and use it safely and wisely.

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Forget air "purifiers," those are sooooo outdated. How about an air disinfector? The English company Inov8 has invented the Air Disinfector, a gadget that essentially creates fresh air indoors. Marketed mainly at hospitals, it's currently available only in Europe but is being tested here in the U.S. with the intent of making it available here soon. About the size of a flower vase, the Air Disinfector works by creating reactive hydogen radicals and pumping them into the air, instantly killing microbes and bacteria in the surrounding air.

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If you drive a car, and most of us do (except maybe you New Yorkers out there), you probably spend a great many waking hours in that tiny space traveling to and from all kinds of places. Your car really is a big part of your life -- some of us even name our cars like they're people, or pets, or something.

But a good question to ask yourself next time you're getting comfortable in that cushy seat is what kind of germs are lurking nearby? And how many are there? More than you think, I'd be willing to bet.

What area is the worst? Obviously, anywhere you've ever spilled food and not cleaned and sanitized properly ranks #1. Some other places, though, surprised me a little. Like the dashboard -- the dust on the dashboard -- harbors a LOT of bacteria. And some places you might think would be full of germs, like the radio knob or door locks, are actually some of the cleanest on the list.

I guess I need to make another entry on the "Spring Cleaning" to do list.

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Think about it, how much time do you spend at your desk every day? Depending on what kind of job you have, you may actually be spending more waking hours time sitting there than being anywhere else in a typical day or week. And if you're like me, you not only eat snacks at your desk on a daily basis, but at least a couple times a week eat your lunch there too. And blow your nose, and drink coffee, and talk on the phone...the list goes on and on. So with all that germy living happening right there on your desk, how often do you clean it? And that doesn't mean brushing the crumbs aside, it means bust-out-the-Lysol-scrub-it-down clean. I'm guessing rarely, if not never. I admit that my desk looks pretty clean, but I have never actually disinfected it. And in light of studies like the one Clorox funded that says women have the dirtiest offices, maybe I should do that sometime -- soon.

Here are 5 ways to "detox your desktop," and some of them are pretty nifty:

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The Clorox Company recently funded a survey on office germs, and apparently women have dirtier offices than men. And not by a little either -- women's desks and work areas are about twice as germy as their male coworkers.

The study included swabs of all kinds of locations, but mold and yeast were found most commonly in the bottom of desk drawers (where people stash their afternoon snacks), and on phones, desktops, and computer mouses (mice?).

As ashamed as I am to admit it, I guess I'm not that surprised because it does seem like women snack a lot more at the office than men. But there is one saving grace to this whole thing: even though women came with the germiest workspace, what tested out as the single germiest item of all? Men's wallets.

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This is a follow-up post to an earlier article on sanitizing kitchen sponges in the microwave, and all I have to say (between fits of laughter) is wow! Researchers at the University of Florida announced earlier this week that they had successfully killed 99% of bacteria and germs on a kitchen sponge by microwaving it on high for about 2 minutes. What they apparently neglected to mention (or maybe thought they didn't need to) is that the sponge needs to be wet.

So people all over the country gave the idea a shot, sticking dry sponges into microwaves and almost immediately (well, within 2 minutes I'm assuming) realized their grievous errors as their microwaves filled with flames, and their homes filled with smoke and the nasty smell of burnt tires.

Not to make light of anyone's misfortune, but it's so funny partly because I can actually see myself spacing out and throwing a dry sponge into the microwave to try this (I didn't, for the record). I guarantee, though, that as soon as I had a lump of flaming goop instead of a clean sponge and my fire alarm started going off I'd get it...of course it has to be wet first!

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