Office cleaning – Top Germ Spots in the Office

According to research by Dr. Charles Gerba from University of Arizona there are many germ hot spots in the office and some are quite surprising.

Top  7 germ spots in your office

• Phone – 25,127 germs per square inch
• Desktop surface – 20,961 germs per square inch
• Keyboard – 3,295 germs per square inch
• Mouse – 1,676 germs per square inch
• Fax machine – 301 germs per square inch
• Photocopier – 69 germs per square inch
• Toilet seat – 49 germs per square inch

Interesting facts about office germs

1. Printer buttons are touched by many different people each day and are one of the hot spots for germs
2. Clean your office desk regularly and you will reduce the bacteria by 99.9%
3. E-coli, Staph and bacteria are the most common germs in the office and studies suggest that 60% of illnesses are contracted from dirty office equipment and most of us believe that dirty office surfaces are making us ill
4. However, over 50% of people think that you are most likely to catch E-coli in the hospital than the office
5. Surprisingly there are more bacteria on your office desktop surface than on a toilet seat
6. Keep your phone, desktop, keyboard and mouse clean – they collect the most germs
7. Only a stuggering 22% of office workers wash their hands before preparing their lunch in the office
8. More than 60% of office worers share phones, computers and desktops – spreading germs
9. 60% of office workers have had a cold at least once in three months, believed to be contrubuted to by dirt office equipment and germs from the office
10. Do you pick your nose at work? If yes then you are in the 72% of office worker who do, naughty.
11. Over 60% of office workers are also sneezing and coughing without covering their mounth and are leaving the bathroom without washing hands

How to easily clean your computer keyboard

As you can see from our stats above, keyboard is one of the most germ and bacteria ridden equipment in the office.

If your keyboard looks like this, you should really clean it now.

The most commonly used keyboard keys get dirty quite quickly and some have dirt building on them over months or even years. Maybe that’s why there are more and more black keyboards in the office. Black keyboard might be great for hiding dirt but it’s still there, so remember to give it a quick clean once a week.

What you’ll need:

• can of compressed air
• cotton buds
• cloth
• washing-up liquid
• alcohol wipes for speedy clean

1. Un-plug your keyboard.
2. Turn it upside down and shake it to remove crumbs and other bits stuck in between the keys.
3. Using the can of compressed air, direct the air stream between the rows of keys to get out stubborn dirt and bigger crumbs.
4. Using the cotton bud dipped in warm water with washing-up liquid; wipe the surface of each key and in between the keys. Make sure the cotton bud is rinsed and replace it when dirty. Also clean the section in front of the space bar where your hands rest.
5. Dry the keys with a clean cloth.
6. Instead of using cotton buds and water you can use alcohol wipes.

If you keep on top of your keyboard germs and clean it at least one a week or fortnight you can be sure to have germ and bacteria free keyboard.

Of course, why do all the cleaning yourself when you could have a professional and reliable office cleaning company 🙂