An office may not be a place you specifically associate with germs. It’s professional, runs like clockwork, and is a source of productivity. It’s clear to see why an office environment may not correlate to filthiness in the eyes of many.

We must remember, however, that numerous people will spend up to 9 hours there – even more for the unfortunates burdened with overtime! Humans naturally have an outstanding amount of germs both on their exterior and interior. We carry all of our germs with us throughout the day – depositing them onto whatever we come into contact with (or happen to sneeze and cough upon.)

Discover just some of the dirtiest office areas that need thorough cleaning daily.

Coffee Maker

A person in need of coffee isn’t likely to have sanitation at the top of their priorities, neither is it considered an office apparatus that needs regular cleaning.

The closest a coffee maker may get to a wash is a quick wipe-down or water change. This simply doesn’t suffice when you take into consideration just how many people use it every day and how germy it has been proven to be.

The possibility of stale water, which germs thrive off, doesn’t do the much-loved coffee-maker many favors either.

A hired professional commercial cleaner would take this into account, the coffee maker would be spic-and-span every morning – ready to boost some drowsy workers!

Water Cooler

The humble water cooler fares no better than the coffee maker when it comes to cleanliness. Extracting the water from the cooler requires that you maintain your hand on the leaver for some time – allowing more time for bacteria transfer.

People need to drink so the water cooler isn’t going to get a break all day. This use leads to an accumulation of a variety of germs – office workers who would’ve never come into contact are all united by the water cooler.

It’s recommended that you use alcohol-based sanitize wipes to combat germs at moments like these. They are easily portable and don’t waste time.

Taps and Sinks

Surely that which we clean our hands with should be the most polished! We all know this not to be the case. Even automatic taps can be swarmed with germs.

Despite or constant cleansing of our hands, mugs, plates in sinks – the sink itself is rarely cleansed. A regular wipe down with hot and soapy water with a sanitizing agent should be undertaken repeatedly at regular intervals throughout the day.

This can be time-consuming and laborious for office workers who may have deadlines to meet. Once again, a professional office cleaner can save the day simply by being hired.

Elevator Buttons

This is an obvious germ-haven but they are inevitable for those working in the upper floors of a building or disabled workers. Just think about how often a day the floor buttons must be pushed every day – never mind the lobby button!

Elevator buttons have even been scientifically outed as being filthy! Pushing your desired button with the tip of your elbow is a recommended method to this quandary – this can appear quite bizarre and may leave you feeling silly.

As an alternative, you can stick to the classic of washing your hands with hot and soapy water for up to 20 seconds at every opportunity possible.

Door Handles

Asking office cleaning staff to be thorough on door handles is a must in large-scale offices. They’re necessary to the workplace and absolutely every used them, often placing their whole hand on the handle – leading to further germ spread.

We are adapted to have a natural disgust response to that which is outwardly putrid. If every door handle a worker comes into contact with is grimy and sticky – they certainly won’t have an enjoyable workday.

Regular inspection should be undertaken on the many handles of an office and due sanitation done if necessary.

Office Equipment

It may be the bane of any workers life but it’s necessary. As we have seen from previously looking into elevator buttons – anything to do with buttons tends to be germy and unsanitary.

Whether it be the buttons on a printer, copier or fax machine – we simply don’t take into account just how filthy they can be. Cleaning office equipment in the same manner as elevator buttons is highly recommended.

Keyboard

There’s sometimes just no time to put that pretzel or biscuit down if you’re about to send an urgent email or make a deal. Your keyboard and the crumbs falling onto, (and into,) it becomes a vague afterthought.

It’s not often that anyone subsequently picks up their keyboard after blasting it with crumbs and shakes the food bits out, never mind clean it. This coupled with the constant use of keyboards and the sneezes and coughs often directed at it has won it a place as one of the germiest aspects of an office.

To stave off the eerie sense of germs lingering beneath your fingers it is recommended that you use cans of compressed air that can be used to blow the debris out between the keys.

A daily wipe down using a suitable sanitizer is also suggested.

Desktop

The desktop is home to 400 times more germs than a toilet seat – ten million to be exact. That is a whopping 21,000 bacteria viruses and fungi per square inch!

It’s almost unbelievable how any works at a desk upon processing these facts! The chance of falling ill is immense. Luckily, the filth is not set in stone nor are the shocking figures.

Even just a daily thorough clean can remedy this hazard – something that we often neglect doing due to having other priorities.

Telephone

Last but not least – the telephone. You may protest that this won’t affect you as you only use mobile – mobile’s hold just the same amount if not more germs and bacteria than a phone.

The cleaning of phones is passed to the side and disregarded as being unnecessary which is remarkable considering that it is host to 25,000 germs per square inch. Beating the germ refuge that is the average desktop by up to 4,000 germs!

How do you cull the germ hazard?

There are many precautions against spreading germs that we can implement into our daily lives such as sneezing into our elbows, carrying sanitization wipes, washing our hands regularly but we often don’t have time to carry out the tedious task of cleaning that which we come into every day.

It is clear to see how an organized and dedicated team of professional commercial cleaners working both overnight and during the day can alleviate the stresses of a dirty work environment and help with the flow of an office workplace.

It is not sufficient that an office worker only cleans the area which they function in – all aspects of the office must be cleaned in order to prevent unnecessary contamination and contagion.

That's where the benefit of a professional nightly office cleaning service can take care of all the dirty places in your office and keep your office looking great and your employees feeling great.