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Dangerous Germs on Your Desk (and How to Eliminate Them)

You sit at it five days a week. You write there, eat there, meet there, sneeze there—no wonder your office desk can easily host dozens of invisible germs that could, if not addressed, literally make you sick. Like what? Well, according to University of Arizona Professor of Microbiology Charles Gerba, gastrointestinal illness-inducing bacteria from the office phone receiver, diarrhea-causing E.coli from an infrequently washed coffee cup, and staph infection-inducing microbes from your keyboard, for starters. But before you break out the surgical gloves, don’t worry! Follow these four easy steps, and you can keep your workspace clean and you healthy.

1.    Use Disinfecting Wipes Regularly.

If you think dusting or wiping down your workstation with a damp paper towel will keep germs under control, think again—doing either can actually make things worse by spreading dangerous microorganisms around. Your best defense against the nearly 21,000 disease-causing germs per square inch your desktop could potentially be harboring? Wiping everything with disinfecting wipes—like Clorox Disinfecting Wet Wipes with Fresh Scent ($4.63 at Walmart for a 75-count container)—at least once a week, or every other day during cold and flu season.


2.    Keep Sanitizer Handy.

When you hit the print switch on the copier or push the elevator door button, you come into contact with germs other people have left behind. Refrain from bringing those potentially harmful microbes back to your desk and spreading them around by keeping a bottle of hand sanitizer at the entrance of your office or workspace and making it a habit to pump it once or twice every time you return to your desk.

3.     Keep Your Desk and Food-Free Zone.

While work can get busy, making it difficult to tear yourself away from the computer during lunch, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice chowing down at your desk.  According to self-proclaimed “Germ Doctor,” Charles Gerba, “People turn their desks into bacteria cafeterias because they eat at them, but they never clean them.” He goes on to say that the food particles left from your midday meal can, in just a short amount of time, make your desk “400 times more dirty than your toilet.” If you find it hard to budget time to eat, set a daily calendar reminder and put aside at least 20 minutes to grab a bite away from your desk.


4.    Thoroughly Wash Your Drinkware.

In a recent study, Dr. Charles Gerba found that a whopping 90 percent of coffee mugs contain germs and—even more sickening—20 percent harbor fecal bacteria. Unfortunately, a quick rinse in the office kitchen sink is no match for the potentially thousands of microbes in your cup. Your best bet is to take your reusable drinking container home and place it in the dishwasher, making sure to use the dry cycle, which employs intensely hot temperatures to kill germs.

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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc.