Desks, keyboards, doorknobs, bathrooms, and telephones. What do all of these things have in common? These are places where bacteria love to hang out and multiply. Whether your office staff is large or small in number, cleanliness should always be a priority.
⇒Fact The average desk has 400 times the amount of bacteria found on the typical toilet seat.
- Hand Sanitizer Sanitize, Sanitize, Sanitize. You touch nearly everything in your office, the keyboard and mouse, the phone, door handles, paperwork – EVERYTHING. Although you probably wash your hands every time you get done using the restroom, bacteria will still find a way to get on your hands the moment you’ve finished drying. Keep a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer on your desk and use it at least every hour to help control the spread of germs and illness.
- Don’t Eat at Your Desk Maybe your office doesn’t have a lunch area, or you prefer to eat your lunch at your desk ‘I’m being more productive’. Just don’t. Find a place away from your desk to eat your meals. If it’s absolutely necessary that you eat at your desk, be sure to clean it afterward with disinfecting wipes.
- Wash Your Hands After Eating When you finish eating your breakfast or lunch there’s almost always bits of food left behind on your hands, creating a breeding ground for bacteria. Make it a habit to wash your hands after your meals, not just after using the restroom.
- Cotton Swabs Cotton swabs are essential to office cleaning. They’re good to use, with a dab of rubbing alcohol, to clean the small cracks in your
keyboard and other hard to reach places. Keep a few in a zip lock back in your desk. - Coasters Set your drinks on a coaster or napkin. Don’t put them directly on your desk. Just like food particles, bacteria will be attracted to the rings of coffee that litter your desk.
- Clean Your Phone Your average office phone has 25,000 germs per square inch. It’s a bacteria hotspot. Clean your phone with a disinfecting wipe daily to prevent the spread of illness.
- If You’re Sick, Stay Home Quit being stubborn. It might not look good on your attendance, but it will do no good if you get everybody else in the office sick with you. Don’t bring your co-workers down with the ship. Stay home if you’re sick.
- Clean The Office Kitchen Office kitchen and pantry etiquette is often overlooked in daily cleaning routines. Don’t leave dishes unwashed in the sink. Clean up the bits of food left on the counter after you make your sandwich.
- Watch What You Throw Away When you get done with your lunch wrappers, where do they go? The garbage. Be careful what you’re throwing away. Germs will be where the food is, even if it’s in the garbage. Change the trash bags daily to help limit the duration food sits there.
- Dry Your Hands It’s common knowledge that you should wash your hands after using the restroom (and after you eat). But, 16% of office workers are reported to not dry after washing. Bacteria are more attracted to wet hands than dry hands. So remember to dry!
It’s time to crack down on your office hygiene. Grab a wipe and get rid of the unwanted bacteria looming around your keyboard. Just don’t have time to do it all? Let Porcelain Patrol Services give you a hand.
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