How to Clean Office Desks and Other Common Surfaces

You’re surrounded by thousands or even millions of germs when you’re at your desk, typing on your keyboard, and drinking from your coffee cup. In fact, some of the dirtiest places you touch every day are the surfaces around your workplace.

Unexpectedly Fertile Ground for Bacteria

A survey by the job-search site Joblist found that often-touched office items like keyboards and desks are rarely cleaned, even though they can be full of germs. The average respondent said they cleaned their computer mouse and keyboard-less than twice a month and their desk about three times a month. Nearly a quarter of the 1,000 people who answered the survey said they had gone at least one whole workday in the past month without washing their hands.

If you have these bad habits, your office or home workspace could be crawling with germs.

Charles Gerba of the University of Arizona has found that there are about 800 bacteria per square inch on the average desk. With 2,200 and 1,600 bacteria per square inch, respectively, your unwashed coffee cup at your desk and your work phone are even dirtier. The average toilet seat in an office building has about 59 bacteria per square inch, which is a small number compared to the germs you touch at your desk. So keep that in mind the next time you’re eating lunch while talking on the phone or sending emails.

When you touch these bacteria-filled office surfaces, you could get sick or get an infection. In a study about germs in the workplace, 96% of the 25 keyboards tested were found to have potentially harmful bacteria, such as E. coli, which can cause disease. E.coli, which comes from poop, and Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), bacteria that cause infections and are resistant to antibiotics.

Even worse, almost three-quarters of the people who responded to the Joblist survey said they had gone to work when they were sick. This is especially worrying given the current coronavirus pandemic. esearch from the University of Arizona shows that if a co-worker is sick, you are up to 90% more likely to get the same virus. This study was done before the COVID-19 pandemic.) The researchers also found that with just one sick person in the office, more than half of the surfaces in the office, like the coffee pot handle, doorknobs, phones, and desks, can become infected with a virus. But taking simple steps to keep clean, like washing your hands before you eat and cleaning regularly with disinfectant wipes, cut the risk of infection to less than 10%.

Even though it can be hard to keep things like your keyboard, phone, and computer mouse free of germs when they are used a lot, good cleaning habits can help a lot. To stop germs from spreading, you should wash your hands often and well, especially after going to the bathroom and before eating. Then, use these ways to clean to regularly disinfect your desk and other office items. To keep your office clean, you might want to wipe down the surfaces you use most often every night before you log out.

How to Clean Your Office Desk and Supplies

Start with the things on top to clean and disinfect the office desk. If you use a coffee cup or reusable water bottle at work, wash it every day with liquid dish soap and hot water, or bring it home every night after work and run it through the dishwasher. Use disinfectant wipes to clean your stapler, tape dispenser, scissors, and most-used pens. Make sure to wipe all of the surfaces. You could use soap and water to clean other desk items, like pen holders.

The next step is to clean the top of your desk. Take everything off the desktop, including your computer (if possible), phone, pen holder, and other items (or move them to the side while you clean). Use disinfectant wipes to clean every inch of the surface. Wait until the cleaning solution is dry to put the desk things back where they belong.

Most office desks are made of simple materials that are easy to clean with disinfectant wipes, but your desk at home might be made of something else. Make sure to only use cleaning products that are safe for the surface to avoid discoloration or other damage. Check the manufacturer’s instructions for specific cleaning instructions.

Most of the time, you should only use cleaners made for wood or a solution of mild soap and water that has been diluted. Make sure not to soak the surface, and wipe away any extra water right away. Use a gentle, non-abrasive cleaner (or soap and water) and a microfiber cloth to wipe away dirt and germs from other desktop materials, like laminate or engineered wood.

How to Clean Your Screen, Keyboard, and Mouse

Turn off your computer and unplug the keyboard and mouse before you clean its parts and screen. Then, to clean your keyboard, do these things:

• Gently shake the keyboard upside down over a trash can to get rid of any loose crumbs and dust.
• Spray compressed air between the keys to get rid of any leftover dust.
• Use a disinfectant wipe to clean the keyboard, paying special attention to keys like the space bar and the Enter key that are used a lot. Before cleaning, you might want to squeeze out any extra liquid on the wipe so that it doesn’t drip into the holes and damage the keyboard.
• Wait until everything is dry before using.

Follow these steps to get your computer mouse clean:

• Unplug the mouse and take out the batteries if you need to. Then use a disinfectant wipe to clean all the sides and the scroll.
• For laptops, wipe the touchpad with the disinfectant wipe, being careful not to get too much water in the holes.
• Wait until everything is dry before using.
• Avoid using paper towels, cleaning rags, glass cleaners, and other harsh chemicals to clean your computer screen, as these can damage the LCD screen. Instead, wipe the screen with a microfiber cloth that has been dampened with a mix of mild dish soap and warm water that has been diluted.
• Rinse the cloth with clean water, wring it out, and wipe it again to get rid of any soapy residue.

How to Clean Your Phone at Your Desk

Unplug the device and clean all of its parts, including the ear and mouthpieces, cords, and buttons. Try to clean your office phone every day and as soon as someone else uses it. Make sure your hands are clean before you use your phone to help keep it germ-free. You can also use disinfectant wipes to clean your desk phone.