With cold and flu season ramping up, how do infectious disease specialists prevent from getting sick? Writing for TIME, Angela Haupt asked six infectious disease experts about the practical habits they've built into their daily lives to reduce their risk of getting sick without making life less enjoyable.

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1. Prevent cross-contamination in your kitchen

Jill Roberts, a molecular epidemiologist and professor at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, noted that "one of the major causes of foodborne illness is cross-contamination. It's when you have something that's raw and you get microbes from the raw thing into the ready-to-eat thing."

Her solution is to color-code her cutting boards. Meat always goes on the red cutting board while vegetables never do. "If your meat is always on the red cutting board, you're never going to have your salad stuff on your red cutting board," she said.

Order matters too. Roberts said she makes the salad first, puts it in the refrigerator, and then brings out the red boards and the raw meat. Once she starts handling the meat, she's mindful about sanitizing any surfaces she might have contaminated, from the counters to the sink to the faucet handles and refrigerator door.

2. Use running water to wash your produce, and don't use a bowl

Some people wash their produce by filling a bowl with water and letting everything soak, but experts say that's not the best approach.

"What you actually need is that little bit of friction to break the surface," said Heidi Torres, an infectious disease physician and assistant professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. Roughly 30 seconds under running water, while gently rubbing the produce with your hands, does a lot more than a soak.

The issue with using a bowl is you're washing everything in the same water. "If you have one piece that's contaminated, that water could contaminate the other vegetables," Torres said. Running water washes germs away instead of moving them from one piece of produce to another. It won't get rid of everything, but it will reduce bacteria, viruses, and even some pesticide residue.

3. Microwave the sponge in your kitchen

Sponges are virtually perfect habitats for germs. They're damp, warm, loaded with food particles, and sit next to the counter where you might be placing your raw meat.

"Sponges and wet dishcloths are really good at growing bacteria," said Kelley Steury, a clinical associate professor in the school of public health at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Steury's routine is to rinse her sponge until no food particles come out, then microwave it for 20 seconds. Just make sure the sponge is wet. "If you did it when it was pretty dry, you could start a fire," Steury said.

4. Brush your teeth to prevent infections

Most people brush their teeth to prevent cavities, but Torres said she brushes her teeth to prevent infections.

"At least 25% of infections that I see are related to dental disease," she said. This is because small amounts of bacteria slip into your bloodstream every day, and a healthy immune system clears them out without you noticing. Cavities and gum disease can change this, however, as they allow more bacteria, including more aggressive bacteria, to leak into your blood, which Torres said is a "highway to all your organs."

In some cases, Torres said doctors can trace an infection back to the mouth because the bacteria involved doesn't live anywhere else.

"Rinsing alone wouldn't replace [brushing your teeth], because you really need that mechanical brushing to break down that film of bacteria," Torres said. Hospitals have even started treating basic oral care as a form of infection prevention, she added.

5. Reconsider a rug in your bathroom

A bathmat outside your tub or shower should be washable, hung up to dry between uses, and tossed into the laundry around once a week. "We don't leave the wet stuff on the floor because that's gross," Roberts said. A damp bathmat can also spread athlete's foot from one person to another.

As for a rug at the base of the toilet, Roberts said she'd recommend getting rid of it entirely. Rubber backings don't typically hold up well in the wash, which means it probably doesn't get cleaned as well as it should.

"Especially if you have kids, they don't aim well," she said. "You have splash-overs."

6. Keep your shoes at the door

Shoes don't just pick up dirt — every sidewalk has been shared with other people, their pets, and whatever else passed through. Cesar Figueroa, an infectious diseases specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said he'd rather not track any of that across the floors where his family walks, so shoes should come off at the door.

Hospitals are meticulously cleaned, but Figueroa noted there's always "the risk of bringing pathogens with you on your shoes."

7. Open a window before people come over

Often before company arrives, people wipe down counters. However, Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, said people should be paying more attention to the air.

"I respect air more than surfaces," he said. "You're probably going to have a bigger bang for your buck when you think about ventilation."

Chin-Hong recommends opening a window, and if your air conditioning is running, make sure it's bringing in fresh outdoor air instead of recirculating the same indoor air all night.